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ALCUIN OF YORK 



LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE CATHEDRAL 
CHURCH OF BRISTOL IN 1907 AND 1908 



RIGHT REV. G. F. BROWNE 

D.D., D.C.L., F.S.A. 

BISHOP OF BEISTOL 

FORMERLY DISNEY PROFESSOR OF ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY 

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. 



LONDON : 
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 

NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. ; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. 

BRIGHTON: 129, North Street. 
New York : E. S. Gorham. 

1908 






V 



PBEFACE 

No attempt has been made to correct the various 
forms of many of the proper names so as to make 
the spelling uniform. It is true to the period to 
leave the curious variations as Alcuin and others 
wrote them. In the case of Pope Hadrian, the 
name has been written Hadrian and Adrian in- 
discriminately in the text. 

While Alcum's style is lucid, his habit of dic- 
tating letters hurriedly, and sending them off 
without revision if he had a headache, has left its 
mark on the letters as we have them. It has 
seemed better to leave the difficulties in the English 
as he left them in the Latin. 

The edition used, and the numbering of the 
Epistles adopted, is that of Wattenbach and 
Dummler, Monumenta Alcuiniana, Berlin 1873, 
being the sixth volume of the Bibliotheca Rerum 
Germanicarum. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

The authorship of the anonymous Life of Alcuin. — 
Alcuin's Life of his relative Willibrord. — Willibrord 
at Ripon. — Alchfrith and Wilfrith. — Alcuin's con- 
version. — His studies under Ecgbert and Albert at 
the Cathedral School of York. — Ecgbert' s method of 
teaching. — Alcuin becomes assistant master of the 
School. — Is ordained deacon. — Becomes head master. 
— Joins Karl 1 

CHAPTER II 
Alcuin finally leaves England. — The Adoptionist 
heresy. — Alcuin's retirement to Tours. — His know- 
ledge of secrets. — Karl and the three kings his sons. 
— Fire at St. Martin's, Tours. — References to the life 
of St. Martin. — Alcuin's writings. — His interview 
with the devil. — His last days 23 

CHAPTER III 
The large bulk of Alcuin's letters and other writings. — 
The main dates of his life. — Bede's advice to Ecgbert. 
— Careless lives of bishops. — No parochial system. — 
Inadequacy of the bishops' oversight. — Great monas- 
teries to be used as sees for new bishoprics, and evil 
monasteries to be suppressed. — Election of abbats 
and hereditary descent. — Evils of pilgrimages.— 
Daily Eucharists 51 

CHAPTER IV 
The school of York. — Alcuin's poem on the Bishops 
and Saints of the Church of York. — The destruction 
of the Britons by the Saxons.— Description of 
Wilfrith II, Ecgbert, Albert, of York.— Balther and 
Eata. — Church building in York.— The Library of 
York 68 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V page 

The affairs of Mercia. — Tripartite division of England. 
— The creation of a third archbishopric, at Lichfield. 
— Offa and Karl. — Alcuin's letter to Athelhard of 
Canterbury; to Beornwin of Mercia. — Karl's letter 
to Offa, a commercial treaty. — Alcuin's letter to 
Offa.— Offa's death 87 

CHAPTER VI 

Grant to Malmesbury by Ecgfrith of Mercia. — Alcuin's 
letters to Mercia. — Kenulf and Leo III restore 
Canterbury to its primatial position. — Gifts of money 
to the Pope. — Alcuin's letters to the restored arch- 
bishop. — His letter to Karl on the archbishop's 
proposed visit. — Letters of Karl to Offa (on a question 
of discipline) and Athelhard (in favour of Mercian 
exiles) 106 

CHAPTER VII 
List of the ten kings of Northumbria of Alcuin's 
time. — Destruction of Lindisfarne, Wearmouth, and 
Jarrow, by the Danes. — Letters of Alcuin on the 
subject to King Ethelred, the Bishop and monks of 
Lindisfarne, and the monks of Wearmouth and 
Jarrow. — His letter to the Bishop and monks of 
Hexham 122 

CHAPTER VIII 

Alcuin's letters to King Eardulf and the banished 
intruder Osbald. — His letters to King Ethelred and 
Ethelred' s mother. — The Irish claim that Alcuin 
studied at Clonmacnoise. — Mayo of the Saxons . 140 

CliAPTER IX 
Alcuin's letter to all the prelates of England. — To the 
Bishops of Elmham and Dunwich. — His letters on 
the election to the archbishopric of York. — To the 
new archbishop, and the monks whom he sent to 
advise him. — His urgency that bishops should read 
Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care ..... 157 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER X page 

Summary of Alcuin's work in France. — Adoptionism, 
Alcuin's seven books against Felix and three against 
Elipandus. — Alcuin's advice that a treatise of Felix 
be sent to the Fope and three others. — Alcuin's 
name dragged into the controversy on Transub- 
stantiation. — Image-worship. — The four Libri Carolini 
and the Council of Frankfurt. — The bearing of the 
Libri Carolini on the doctrine of Transubstantiation . 172 

CHAPTER XI 
Karl and Rome. — His visits to that city. — The offences 
and troubles of Leo III. — The coronation of Charle- 
magne. — The Pope's adoration of the Emperor. — 
Alcuin's famous letter to Karl prior to his corona- 
tion. — Two great Roman foi'geries, the Donation of 
Constantine and the Letter of St. Peter to the Franks 186 

CHAPTER XII 

Alcuin retires to the Abbey and School of Tours. — 
Sends to York for more advanced books. — Begs for 
old wine from Orleans. — Karl calls Tours a smoky 
place. — Fees charged to the students. — History and 
remains of the Abbey Church of St. Martin. — The 
tombs of St. Martin and six other Saints. — The Public 
Library of Tours. — A famous Book of the Gospels. — 
St. Martin's secularised. — Martinensian bishops . 202 

CHAPTER XIII 
Further details of the Public Library of Tours. — Mar- 
moutier. — The Royal Abbey of Cormery. — Licence of 
Hadrian I to St. Martin's to elect bishops. — Details 
of the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Tours . 219 

CHAPTER XIV 

Great dispute on right of sanctuary. — Letters of Alcuin 
on the subject to his representatives at court and to 
a bishop. — The emperor's severe letter to St. Martin's. 
— Alcuin's reply. — Verses of the bishop of Orleans 
on Charlemagne. Luitgard, and Alcuin . . . 231 



CONTENTS, VI 1 



CHAPTER XV page 

Alcuin's letters to Charlemagne's sons. — Eeeension of 
the Bible.— The "Alcuin Bible" at the British Mu- 
seum. — Other supposed "Alcuin Bibles." — Anglo- 
Saxon Forms of Coronation used at the coronations 
of French kings 246 

CHAPTER XVI 

Examples of Alcuin's style in his letters, allusive, jocose, 
playful. — The perils of the Alps. — The vision of Dri- 
thelme. — Letters to Arno. — Bacchus and Cupid . 264 

CHAPTER XVII 

Grammatical questions submitted to Alcuin by Karl. — 
Alcuin and Eginhart. — Eginhart's description of 
Charlemagne. — Alcuin's interest in missions. — The 
premature exaction of tithes. — Charlemagne's 
elephant Abulabaz. — Figures of elephants in silk 
stuffs.— Earliest examples of French and German. — 
Boniface's Abrenuntiatio Diaboli. — Early Saxon. — The 
earliest examples of Anglo-Saxon prose and verse . 280 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Alcuin's latest days. — His letters mention his ill health. 
— His appeals for the prayers of friends, and of 
strangers. — An affectionate letter to Charlemagne. — 
The death scene 298 

APPENDICES 

A. A letter of Alcuin to Fulda 305 

B. The report of the papal legates, George and Theo- 

phylact, on their mission to England . . . 310 



C. The original Latin of Alcuin's suggest 

treatise by Felix should be sent to the 
three others 

D. The Donation of Constantine . 

E. Harun Al Raschid and Charlemagne 

Index 



on that a 
Pope and 



319 

320 
324 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Plate I. St. Martin's, Tours, before the pillage 

To face page 210 

Plate II. The Tour St. Martin . . . .211 

Plate III. The Tour Charlemagne . . . .212 

Plate IV. The Tomb of St. Martin . . . .213 

Plate V. Some remains of Marmoutier . . . 222 

Plate VI. Early capital at Cormery .... 227 

Plate VII. Elephant from robes in the tomb of Charle- 
magne 290 

Plate VIII. Inscription worked into the above robe . 291 

Plate IX. Silk stuff of the seventh or eighth century 292 

Plate X. Archbishop Boniface's form for renounc- 
ing the devil 295 

Plate XI. The earliest piece of English prose . . 296 

Plate XII. The earliest piece of English verse . . 297 



ALCUIN OF YORK 



CHAPTER I 

The authorship of the anonymous Life of Alcuin. — 
Alcnin's Life of his relative Willibrord. — Willibrord at 
Ripon. — Alchfrith and Wilfrith. — Alcuin's conversion. — 
His studies under Ecgbert and Albert at the Cathedral 
School of York. — Ecgbert's method of teaching. — Alcuin 
becomes assistant master of the School. — Is ordained 
deacon. — Becomes head master. — Joins KarL 

The only Life of Alcuin which we possess, 
coming from early times, was written by a monk 
who does not give his name, at the command 
of an abbat whose name, as also that of his abbey, 
is not mentioned by the writer. We have, how- 
ever, this clue, that the writer learned his facts 
from a favourite disciple and priest of Alcuin 
himself, by name Sigulf. Sigulf received from 
Alcuin the pet name of Vetulus, " little old 
fellow/'' in accordance with the custom of the 
literary and friendly circle of which Alcuin was 
the centre. Alcuin himself was Flaccus; Karl 
the King of the Franks, and afterwards Emperor, 
was David; and so on. We learn further that 
the abbat who assigned to the anonymous monk 
the task of writing the Life was himself a disciple 
of Sigulf. Sigulf succeeded Alcuin as Abbat of 
Ferrieres ; and when he retired on account of old 
age, he was in turn succeeded by two of his pupils 

B 



ALCUIN OF YORK. 



whom he had brought up as his sons, Adalbert 
and Aldric. The Life was written after the death 
of Benedict of Aniane, that is, after the year 823. 
Adalbert had before that date been succeeded by 
Aldric, and Aldric became Archbishop of Sens 
in the end of 829. The Life was probably written 
between 823 and 829 by a monk of Ferrieres, by 
order of Aldric. Alcuin had died in 804. The 
writer of the Life had never even seen Alcuin; 
he was in all probability not a monk of Tours. 

That is the view of the German editor Wat- 
tenbach as to the authorship and dedication of 
the Life. That learned man appears to have given 
inadequate weight to the writer's manner- of citing 
Aldric as a witness to the truth, of a quaint story 
told in the Life. This is the story, as nearly as 
possible in the monk's words : — 

" The man of the Lord [Alcuin himself] had read 
in his youth the books of the ancient philosophers 
and the romances 1 of Vergil/ but he would not 
in his old age have them read to him or allow 
others to read them. The divine poets, he was 
wont to say, were sufficient for them, they did not 
need to be polluted with the luxurious flow of 
Vergil's verse. Against this precept the little old 
fellow Sigulf tried to act secretly, and for this he 
was put to the blush publicly. Calling to him 
two youths whom he was bringing up as sons, 
Adalbert and Aldric, he bade them read Vergil 
with him in complete secrecy, ordering them by 
no means to let any one know, lest it come to the 
ears of Father Albinus [Alcuin], But Albinus 
called him in an ordinary way to come to him, 
1 Mendacia. 2 See the story of his conversion, p. 1 1 . 



EARLY STUDY OF VERGIL. 



and then said : ' Where do you come from, you 
Vergilian? Why have you planned, contrary to 
my wish and advice, to read Vergil ? ' Sigulf 
threw himself at his feet, confessed that he had 
acted most foolishly, and declared himself penitent. 
The pious father administered a scolding to him, 
and then accepted the amends he made, warning 
him never to do such a thing again. Abbat 
Aldric, a man worthy of God, who still survives, 
testifies that neither he nor Adalbert had told any 
one about it ; they had been absolutely silent, as 
Sigulf had enjoined/'' 

It seems practically impossible to suppose that 
the monk would have put it in this way, if Aldric 
had been the abbat to whom he dedicated the Life, 
or indeed the abbat of his own monastery. It is 
clear that the Life was written while Aldric was 
still an abbat, that is between 823 and 829 ; and 
it seems most probable that it was written by 
a monk of some other monastery for his own 
abbat. Nothing of importance, however, turns 
upon this discussion. It is a rather curious fact, 
considering the severity of AlcuhVs objection to 
Vergil being read in his monastery, that the 
beautiful copy of Vergil at Berne, of very early 
ninth-century date, belonged to St. Martin of 
Tours from Carolingian times, and was written 
there. 1 

1 The following inscription is found in this book : — (i Hunc 
Vergilii codicem obtulit Berno gregis beati Martini lovita 
devota mente Deo et eidem beato Martino perpetualiter 
habendum ea quidem ratione ut perlegat ipsum Albertus 
consobrinus ipsius et diebus vitae suae sub pretextu sancti 
Martini habeat et post suum obitum iterum sancto reddatur 
Martino." 

B 3 



ALCUIN OF YORK. 



Not unnaturally, the Life, written in and for 
a French monastery, does not give details of the 
Northumbrian origin of Alcuin. It makes only 
the statement usual in such biographies, that he 
sprang from a noble Anglian family. Curiously 
enough, we get such further details as we have 
from a Life of St. Willibrord written by Alcuin 
himself at the request of Archbishop Beornrad of 
Sens, who was Abbat of Epternach, a monastery 
of Willibrord's, from 111 to 797. 

" There was," he writes, " in the province of 
Northumbria, a father of a family, by race Saxon, 
by name Wilgils, who lived a religious life with 
his wife and all his house. He had given up the 
secular life and entered upon the life of a monk ; 
and when spiritual fervour increased in him he 
lived solitary on the promontory which is girt by 
the ocean and the river Humber (Spurn Point) 1 . 
Here he lived long in fasting and prayer in a little 
oratory dedicated to St. Andrew 2 the Apostle ; 
he worked miracles ; his name became celebrated. 
Crowds of people consulted him ; he comforted 
them with the most sweet admonitions of the 

1 It appears to be impossible to identify the site of the 
cell of Wilgils. The local idea is that Kilnsea may be the 
place. But then the local idea is that Kilnsea means ' ' the 
cell by the sea ''. 

2 The church of St. Andrew in Rome was the first church 
which Wilfrith in his youth visited on his first appearance 
in that city. It was on the altar of that church that he 
first saw a magnificent copy of the Gospels, which so fired 
his enthusiasm that he had a similar copy made, written in 
letters of gold on purple parchment and adorned with gems, 
for his church at Ripon. His great church at Hexham, the 
finest church north of the Alps, he dedicated to St. Andrew, 
and the dedication thus became a favourite one in North- 
umbria. See my Theodore and Wilfrith, p. 17. 



ALCUIN S LIFE OF WILLIBRORD. 



Word of God. His fame became known to the 
king* and great men of the realm, and they con- 
ferred upon him some small neighbouring pro- 
perties, so that he might build a church. There 
he collected a congregation of servants of God, 
moderate in size, but honourable. There, after long 
labours, he received his crown from God ; and there 
his body lies buried. His descendants to this day 
hold the property by the title of his sanctity. Of 
them I am the least in merit and the last in order. 
I, who write this book of the history of the most 
holy father and greatest teacher Willibrord, suc- 
ceeded to the government of that small cell by 
legitimate degrees of descent." 

Inasmuch as the book is dedicated to Beornrad 
by the humble Levite (that is, deacon) Alcuin, we 
learn the very interesting fact that Alcuin, born 
in 735, came by hereditary right into possession 
of the property got together by Wilgils, whose son 
Willibrord was born in 657. The dates make it 
practically almost certain that Wilgils was born 
a pagan. Alcuin informs us that he only entered 
upon marriage because it was fated that he should 
be the father of one who should be for the profit 
of many peoples. If Willibrord was, as Alcuin's 
words mean, the only child of Wilgils, we must 
suppose that Alcuin was the great-great-great- 
nephew of Wilgils, allowing twenty-five years for 
a generation in those short-lived times. 

Alcuin three times insists on the lawful heredi- 
tary descent of the ownership and government of 
a monastery. A second case is in his preface to 
this Life of Willibrord. The body of the saint, 
he says, " rests in a certain small maritime cell, 



ALCUIN OF YORK. 



over which I, though unworthy, preside by God's 
gift in lawful succession." A third case occurs 
also in this Life. " There is/' he says, u in the 
city of Treves a monastery * of nuns, which in the 
times of the blessed Willibrord was visited by 
a very severe plague. Many of the handmaids 
of the Lord were dying of it ; others were lying 
on their beds enfeebled by a long attack ; the rest 
were in a state of terror, as fearing the presence 
of death. Now there is near that same city the 
monastery of that holy man, which is called 
Aefternac, 2 in which up to this day the saint rests 
in the body, while his descendants are known 
to hold the monastery by legitimate paternal 
descent, and by the piety of most pious kings. 
When the women of the above-named monastery 
heard that he was coming to this monastery of 
his, they sent messengers begging him to hasten 
to them.-" He went, as the blessed Peter went to 
raise Tabitha ; celebrated a mass for the sick ; 
blessed water, and had the houses sprinkled with 
it ; and sent it to the sick sisters to drink. Need- 
less to say, they all recovered. 

In two of these cases, the two in which Alcuin 
speaks of his own property, he uses the word suc- 
cession, "by legitimate succession" in the one case, 
legitima s?cccessio?ie, "through legitimate succes- 
sions " in the other case, per legitimas successiones y 
the former no doubt referring to the succession 
from his immediate predecessor, the latter refer- 
ring to the four, or five, steps in the descent from 
Wilgils to Alcuin. In the case of the monastery 

1 Horreense, the Germans think ; now Oeren. 

2 Epternach, 



HEREDITARY SUCCESSION. 



of Epternach he defines it from the other end, 
"from the legitimate handing-down/'' traditione 
ex legitima, the piety of the most pious kings being 
called in to confirm the handing-down. 

It is remarkable that Alcuin should thus go out 
of his way to insist upon the lawfulness of the 
hereditary descent of monasteries, when he knew 
well that his venerated predecessor Bede, following 
the positive principle of the founder of Anglian 
monasticism in Northumbria, Benedict Biscop, 
attributed great evils to such hereditary succession 
to the property and governance of monasteries. 
We shall see something of this when we come 
to the consideration of Bede's famous letter to 
Ecgbert, written in or about the year of Alcuin's 
birth. 

It is probably not necessary to suppose that 
Alcuin intends to draw a distinction between the 
constitutional practice in Northumbria and that 
in the lands ruled by Karl, though it is a marked 
fact that he mentions the intervention of kings in 
the latter case and twice does not mention it in 
the former. Bede says so much about the bribes 
— or fees — paid to Northumbrian kings and bishops 
for ratification of first grants by their signatures, 
that we can hardly suppose there were no fees to 
pay on succession. We cannot press such a point 
as this in Alcuin's Life of Willibrord, for he tells 
Beornrad in his Preface that he has been busy with 
other things all day long, and has only been able 
to dictate this book in the retirement of the night ; 
and he urges that the work should be mercifully 
judged because he has not had leisure to polish it. 
The grammar of this dictated work needs a certain 



8 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



amount of correction; Alcuin did not always 
remember with what construction he had begun 
a sentence. In these days of dictated letters he 
has the sympathy of many in this respect. 

Alcuin' s young relative Willibrord was sent away 
to Ripon, as soon as he was weaned, to the charge 
of the brethren there. Alchfrith, the sub-King of 
Deira under his father Oswy, had driven out the 
Irish monks whom he had at one time patronised at 
Ripon, and had given their possessions to Wilfrith. 
Under the influence of that remarkable man the 
little child came, still, in Alcuin' s phrase, only an 
infantulus. His father's purpose in sending him to 
Ripon was twofold. He was to be educated in 
religious study and sacred letters, in a place where 
his tender age might be strengthened by vigorous 
discipline, where he would see nothing that was not 
honourable, hear nothing that was not holy. At 
Ripon he remained till he was twenty years of age, 
and then he passed across to Ireland, to complete 
his studies under Ecgbert, the great creator of 
missionaries. With Ecgbert he spent twelve years. 

Now in the thirty-two years covered by that 
short narration, from 657 to 689, events of the 
utmost moment had occurred in Northumbria, and 
had mainly centered round Ripon. At the most 
critical juncture of these events Bede becomes 
suddenly silent. Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of 
Bede goes further, and omits the bulk of what 
Bede does say. A few words from Alcuin would 
have been of priceless value, and he, writing in 
France to a Frank, could have no national or eccle- 
siastical reason for silence on points which Bede 
and Alfred let alone. The whole of the variance 



ALCHFRITH AND WILFRITH. 



between Oswy and his son and sub-King Alelif rith, 
on which Bede is determinedly silent, the only hint 
of which is preserved to ns solely by the noble 
runes on the Bewcastle Cross, erected in 670 and 
still standing, which bid men pray for the " high 
sin " of Alchfrith's soul 1 ; the whole secret of the 
variance between Oswy and Wilfrith ; of Oswy's 
refusal to recognize Wilf rith's consecration at Paris 
— with unrivalled magnificence of pomp — to the 
episcopal See of York; all this, and more, is in- 
cluded in the first thirteen years of Willibrord's 
life at Ripon, and Ripon was the pivot of it all. 
Alcuin has no scintilla of a hint of anything un- 
usual, not even when he mentions Ecgbert, the 
Northumbrian teacher, dwelling in Ireland, of 
whom we know from another source that he fled 
from Northumbria to safety in Ireland when Alch- 
frith and Wilfrith lost their power, and Alchfrith 
presumably lost his life. It is quite possible that 
if the head of the Bewcastle Cross were ever 
found 2 the runes on it might tell us just what we 
want to know. The illustration of this portion of 
the Cross given in Gough's edition of Camden's 
Britannia 3 was drawn in 1607, at which time 
English scholars could not read runic letters, and 
naturally could not copy them with perfect accuracy. 
Still, it is evident that the runes stand for rikaes 
dryhtnaes, apparently meaning c of the kingdom's 
lord ', the copyist having failed to notice the mark 
of modification in the rune for u, which turned it 
into y. 

1 See my Conversion of the Heptarchy, pp. 202-4. 

2 See my Conversion of the Heptarchy, p. 1 90. 

3 iii. 20, plate xiii. 



10 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



Turning now to Alcuin himself, a remarkable 
story is told in the Life, evidently and avowedly 
on his authority. When he was still a small boy, 
parvulus, he was regular in attendance at church at 
the canonical hours of the day, but very seldom 
appeared there at night. What the monastery was 
in which he passed his earliest years we are not 
told; but inasmuch as no break or change is 
mentioned between the story to which we now 
turn and the description of his more advanced 
studies, which certainly indicates the Archiepiscopal 
School of York, we must understand that York was 
the scene of this occurrence. 

( ' When he was eleven years of age, it happened 
one night that he and a tonsured rustic, one of the 
menial monks, that is, were sleeping on separate 
pallets in one cell. The rustic did not like being 
alone in the night, and as none of the rustics could 
accommodate him, he had begged that one of the 
young students might be sent to sleep in the cell. 
The boy Albinus was sent, who was fonder of 
Vergil than of Psalms. At cock-crow the warden 
struck the bell for nocturns, and the brethren got 
up for the appointed service. This rustic, however, 
only turned round onto his other side, as careless 
of such matters, and went on snoring. At the 
moment when the invitatory psalm was as usual 
being sung, with the antiphon, the rustic's cell was 
suddenly filled with horrid spirits, who surrounded 
his bed, and said to him, f You sleep well, brother.' 
That roused him, and they asked, ( Why are you 
snoring here by yourself, while the brethren are 
keeping watch in the church ? ' He then received 
a useful flogging, so that by his amendment a warn- 



alcuin's conversion. 11 

ing might be given to all, and they might sing, f I 
will remember the years of the right hand of the 
Most Highest/ 1 while their eyes prevented the 
night watches. During the flogging of the rustic, 
the noble boy trembled lest the same should happen 
to him; and, as he related afterwards, cried from 
the very bottom of his heart, ' O Lord Jesus, if Thou 
dost now deliver me from the cruel hands of these 
evil spirits, and I do not hereafter prove to be eager 
for the night watches of Thy Church and the min- 
istry of praise, and if I any longer love Vergil more 
than the chanting of psalms, may I receive a flog- 
ging such as this. Only, I earnestly pray, deliver 
me, O Lord, now/ That the lesson might be the 
more deeply impressed upon his mind, as soon as by 
the Lord's command the flogging of the rustic 
ceased, the evil spirits cast their eyes about here 
and there, and saw the body and head of the boy 
most carefully wrapped up in the bedclothes, scarce 
taking breath. The leader of the spirits asked, 
f Who is this other asleep in the cell ? ' ' It is the 
boy Albinus/ they told him, ' hid away in his bed. - ' 
When the boy found that he was discovered, he burst 
into showers of tears; and the more he had sup- 
pressed his cries before, the louder he cried now. 
They had all the will to deal unmercifully with 
him, but they had not the power. They discussed 
what they should do with him ; but the sentence 
of the Lord compelled them to help him to keep 
the vow which he had made in his terror. Accord- 
ingly they said, imprudently for their purpose, but 
prudently for the purpose of the Lord, ' We will 

1 Ps. lxxvii. 11. 



12 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

not chastise this one with severe blows, because he 
is young ; we will only punish him by cutting 
with a knife the hard part of his feet.' They took 
the covering off his feet. Albinus instantly pro- 
tected himself with the sign of the Cross. Then 
he chanted with all intentness the twelfth psalm, 
' In the Lord put I my trust '; and then the rustic, 
half dead, the boy going before him with agile 
step, fled into the basilica to the protection of the 
saints/'' 

A cynical reader might suggest that the disci- 
plinary officers of the School of York resorted in 
those early times to unusual methods of making an 
impression on a careless boy. 

The Life proceeds to inform us that Alcuin was 
trained under the prelate Hechbert, whom we know 
as Ecgbert, Bishop and later Archbishop of York, 
732 to 766. That learned man was a disciple of 
Bede. He had under his tuition a flock of the 
sons of nobles, some of whom studied grammar, 
others the liberal arts, others the divine scriptures. 1 
They studied the doctrine set forth by " the holy 
apostle of the English, Gregory; by Augustine, 
his disciple ; by holy Benedict 2 ; also by Cuthbert 
and Theodore, who followed in all things [a word 
is omitted here, presumably the footsteps 3 ] of their 
first father and apostle 4 ; and by the man most 

1 The relative numbers of these three " sides" of the 
School of York may possibly be indicated by the quidam, 
alii, nonnulli, of the author. 

2 Biscop. 

3 After a parenthetical paragraph the writer continues, 
" Cuius iam, ut dictum est, sequens Hechbertus vestigia." 

4 Gregory, it must be supposed. If one of the Apostles 
of the Lord had been meant, much more honorific words 
would have been used, 



ECGBERTS METHOD OF TEACHING. 13 

loved of the Lord, Bede the presbyter, Hechbert's 
own preceptor." 

Then follows a very lifelike description of an 
ordinary day's work, when no inevitable expedition 
came in the way, nor any high solemnity or great 
festival of the saints. " From dawn of day to the 
sixth hour, and very often to the ninth hour, 
Ecgbert lay on his couch and opened to his dis- 
ciples such of the secrets of scripture as suited each. 
Then he rose, and betook himself to most secret 
prayer, offering first to the Lord fat burnt -offerings 
with the incense of rams, and afterward, following 
the example of the blessed Job, lest by chance his 
sons should slip into the pit of benediction, 1 offer- 
ing the Body of Christ and the Blood for all. By 
this time the vesper hour was coming near, and, 
except in Lent, all through the year, winter and 
summer, he took with his disciples a meal, slight 
but fittingly prepared, not sparing the tongue of 
the reader, that both kinds of food might bring 
refreshment. Then you might see the youths 
piercing one another with shafts prepared, dis- 
cussing in private what afterwards they are to 
shoot forth in proper order in public. Does it not 
seem to you that of this too it might be said, 2 "As 
an eagle provoketh her young ones to fly, nuttereth 
over them, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh 
them, beareth them on her wings " ? 

<( Twice in the day did this father of the poor, 
this great lover and helper of Christ, pour out 
most secret prayer, watered from the most pure 
fountain of tears, both knees bent on the ground, 

1 Used antiphrastically for malediction : see Job i. 5. 

2 Deut. xxxii. 11. 



14 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

hands long raised to heaven in the form of the 
Cross ; once, namely, before taking food, and again 
before celebrating Compline with all his flock. 
Which ended, no one of his disciples ever dared 
commit his limbs to his bed without the master's 
blessing laid upon his head. 

" He loved all his disciples, but of all he loved 
Alcuin the most, for Alcuin more closely than any 
of them followed his example in act and deed. 
There were two special virtues in Alcuin — one, that 
he never did anything which he was not quite clear 
that his master's approval covered ; the other, that 
whatever devices and temptations the enemy 
brought to his mind, he told them all straight out 
to his master without any sense of shame. Thus 
it came to pass that any stimulus of lust which 
he ever felt was most gloriously conquered by this 
wonderful method, dashing the children of Babylon 
against the stones, bruising the head of the serpent 
with the heel. He was careful that against him 
the words of Christ should not be spoken — ( Every 
one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh 
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved ' ; but 
rather that his lot should be with them of whom it 
is added — ' But he that doeth truth cometh to the 
light, that his deeds may be made manifest that 
they are wrought in God/ O true monk without 
the monk's vow ! how very seldom is thy example 
followed by one whose vow binds him to it V J 

In the chapter from which these details are 
taken the author three times uses the name 

1 Chapter viii of the Kule of St. Benedict directs that 
a monk shall not conceal from his abbat evil thoughts which 
come into his heart. 



ALCUIN S NAME OF ALBINUS. 15 

" Albinus " for his hero, in place of " Alchuinus " 
with which he began the chapter. Throughout 
the Life he much more often calls him Albin than 
Alcuin. We must probably understand that he 
was known from his boyhood by both names ; and 
it is evident that Albin would be more easy to 
pronounce than Alcuin, and would not unnaturally 
be more generally used. On the other hand, it 
is quite possible that he himself elected to call 
himself Albin. 

If Alcuin took the name Albinus from any 
English source, the source is not far to seek. The 
English nation owes to the original Albinus the 
first suggestion to Bede that he should write the 
Church History of the English race. Bede tells 
us this in the Preface to his great work ; and we 
have it still more directly expressed in a letter 
from him to Albinus in which he speaks of the 
History as ad quam me scribendam iamdudum insti- 
gaveraSj and of Albinus as semper amantissimus in 
Christo pater optimus. He was Abbat of St. Peter 
and St. Paul, Canterbury, a pupil of Theodore and 
Hadrian, the latter of whom he succeeded. He 
greatly helped Bede by sending him full details 
of the conversion of Kent, ' ( as he had learned the 
same from written records and from the oral tradi- 
tion of his predecessors/'' Bede sent to him the 
completed copy of the History, that he might have 
it transcribed, and informs us that Albinus had no 
small knowledge of Greek, and knew Latin as well 
as his native tongue, English. Alcuin may well 
have taken his name of Albinus from one with 
whom he had so much in common, who died only 
two or three years before Alcuin's birth. 



16 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

If, on the other hand, Alcuin took the name from 
some foreign source, again we have not far to seek. 
In Karl's first year as King of the Franks he gave 
a confirmatory charter to "the Monastery of St. 
Albinus, which is built near to the walls of Angers". 
The Tour St. Aubin and the Rue St. Aubin are 
still to be found at Angers, at the extreme south- 
east corner of the ancient city. Little is known of 
this martyr Albinus, and in consequence the Acts 
of our St. Alban have been transferred to him. At 
Angers, as at Alcuin' s own Tours, there are remains 
of a great church of St. Martin; and, as was in 
early times the case at Tours, the Cathedral is 
dedicated to St. Maurice. It is possible that Alcuin 
took his name of Albinus from this local source, 
but it does not seem at all probable. 

AlcuhVs supremacy in wisdom and other virtues 
caused jealousy among his fellow disciples. This 
went so far that they could not look at him with 
unclouded eye or address him with pleasant words. 
He consulted his master, who by this time was 
Elcbert (Archbishop of York, 767-78), known to 
Alcuin as Aelbert, and to us as Albert. The master 
advised him to try the effect of heaping coals of 
fire on their heads. He followed this advice, taking 
care that they should never hear from him a con- 
trary word, and very often yielding to them when 
their arguments were unsound. This course of con- 
duct he pursued until a complete change took place, 
and they all rejoiced to acknowledge in him the 
second master of their studies, next under Albert. 

The Life relates at this point an interesting 
episode, in the description of which we may seem 
to hear Alcuin himself speaking to us : — 



ALCUIN S VISION OF THE WORLD. I7 

"Alcuin was reading the Gospel of St. John 
before the master, in company of his fellow disciples. 
He came to a part of the Gospel which only the 
pure in heart can comprehend — that part, namely, 
from where John says that he lay on the Lord's 
breast, down to the point at which he relates that 
Jesus went with His disciples across the brook 
Cedron. 1 Inebriated with the mystical reading 
of the Gospel, suddenly, as he sat before the 
master's couch, his spirit was carried away in 
ecstasy, and by those same who once in a ray of 
sunlight showed before the eyes of the most holy 
father Benedict the whole world, collected as it 
were in an enclosure, the whole world was now 
set before the eyes of Alcuin. And as he looked 
intently at what he saw, he saw the whole of the 
enclosure surrounded by a circle of blood. While 
he was held by this marvellous vision, his fellow 
disciples gazed at him in wonder, for the blood 
seemed to have left his face. They tried to rouse 
him, as one asleep ; the noise they made attracted 
the attention of Albert, who looked at him for 
some time in silence, and then said, c Go on reading, 
my sons, do not disturb him ; if he rests awhile 
he will be able to follow me more effectively when 
I expound the passage.' When the reading was 
completed, and Albin came to himself again, the 
father told them all to go except Alcuin. When 
they were gone, he said, ' What hast thou seen ? 
I beg thee, do not hide it.' Alcuin wished to keep 
secret what he had seen, fearing to fall into the 
pitfall of elation ; so he said, ' Why, my lord 

1 John xiii. 25 to xviii. 1 inclusive. 
C 



18 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

father?' The blessed man said again, 'Do not, 
my son, do not hide it from me. It is not from 
vain curiosity that I require this of you, but for 
your own good.' Aleuin saw that he could not 
keep it secret, and he told, humbly, how he had 
seen the whole world. Then the father said to 
him, ' See, my son, see that thou tellest not this 
vision to any but that one whom after my decease 
thou shalt hold to be the most faithful to thy 
person. And charge him to keep it secret up to 
the time of thy death.' Acting on this counsel, 
he told it only to Si gulf x during his lifetime. If 
any one desires to know how the whole world could 
be seen in one enclosure, he may turn to the book 
of Dialogues of the holy Gregory 2 ; and in the 
meantime he may know that it was not the heaven 
and the earth that were contracted into a small 
space, but the mind of the seer that was dilated, 
so that when rapt in the Lord he could without 
difficulty see everything that was under God. 
Perhaps some one inquiring further may ask why 
under this figure of an enclosure, or why surrounded 
by blood? He may know that the Blood of 
Christ surrounds the fold of the holy Church, so 
that from the rising of the sun to the setting 
thereof those who are redeemed by His Passion 
can say the words which, without doubt, dominated 
the mind of Albin when he read before the master : 
' O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, 

1 Sigulf, as we have seen, told the writer the facts of 
Alcuin's life which he recorded. 

2 Dial. ii. 35. Benedict there narrates that he saw the 
whole world collected into one ray of the sun, in which the 
soul of Germanus, bishop of Capua, ascended to the heavens. 



ALCUIN ORDAINED DEACON. 19 

and His mercy endureth for ever/ 1 The whole 
world, then, is seen in one enclosure surrounded by 
the Blood of Christ ; for all that the holy fathers 
have done and have written figuratively since the 
beginning* of the world is unlocked by the Passion 
of Christ alone, who is the lion of the tribe of 
Juda, the root of David. But if by the encircled 
enclosure any should wish to be understood the life 
of his own carnal crimes surrounded by blood, thus 
shown to him that it may be trodden under foot 
by him, let that interpretation be left to his own 
judgement." 

Alcuin had been tonsured in early years. He 
was ordained deacon at York on the day of the 
Purification of the holy Mary, in or about the year 
768. Elcbert, who had been for some time in bad 
health, felt that his death was drawing nigh, and 
he gave to Alcuin a sketch of the course of life 
which he wished him to pursue. The writer gives 
us a report of his actual words, stating that u they 
are now known"; this means, presumably, that 
here also Alcuin had communicated them to 
Sigulf, to be made public only after his death. 
They run thus : — " My will is that you go to 
Borne, and on the way back visit France. 2 For 
I know that you will do much good there. Christ 
will be the leader of your journey, guiding you 
and controlling you on your arrival, that you may 
demolish that most nefarious heresy which will 

1 Ps. cvi. 1. 

2 Francia, both here and in Alcuin's Letter 35, where he 
writes as if with these words in his mind: "I came to 
France, under pressure of ecclesiastical need, and to confirm 
the reason of the Catholic Faith." 

C 2 



20 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



attempt to set forth Christ as adoptive man, and 
that you may be the firmest defender and the 
clearest preacher of the faith in the Holy Trinity. 1 
You will persevere in the land of your peregrina- 
tion, illumining the souls of many." 

The holy father, Bishop Elcbert, after blessing 
him with the benedictions of his predecessor above 
named, migrated to God on the eighth day of 
November, 780. " The pious Albinus mourned 
with tears, as for his mother, and would not take 
comfort. Endowed in hereditary right with the 
holy benedictions of the fathers, 2 he took pains to 
multiply exceedingly the talent of his lord. 3 He 
taught many in Britain, and not few later in 
France. It was now that he associated with him 
a man dear to God, remarkable for the nobility of 
mind and of body, Sigulf, the presbyter, Warden 
of the Church of the City of York, to remain with 
him perpetually. 4 Sigulf had gone as a boy to 
France with his uncle Autbert the presbyter, and 
by him had been taken to Borne to learn the 
ecclesiastical order ; he had then been sent to the 
city of Metz to learn chanting. There he worked 
hard for some time, in great poverty, but with 
much profit. After the holy man, his uncle, 

1 There is a tradition that Alcuin wrote the Office for the 
Mass on Trinity Sunday. See Appendix A. 

2 The " hereditary right " seems to indicate that by these 
' ' benedictions" the library of York is meant, of which more 
will be said later on. 

3 "Talentum sui domini", sc. Elcberti? 

4 The perpetual presence of Sigulf was needed for the 
celebration of masses, Alcuin remaining a deacon. There is 
a curious mention of Alcuin's part in the administration of 
Holy Communion, and of the action of the young King Louis 
when receiving at his hand ; see p. 32. 



ALCUIN MEETS KARL. 21 

migrated to trie Lord, he came back to his own 
land/'' We can almost see and hear Sigulf getting 
these little facts abont himself and his uncle in- 
corporated in the Life of Alcuin. 

"When the Almighty God willed to glorify 
France with spiritual riches, as already with earthly 
riches, granting to the land a King after His own 
heart, a man of faith, fortitude, love of wisdom, 
and ineffable beauty of body, namely Karl, most 
illustrious in these respects, He put it into the 
mind of Albinus that he should fulfil the counsel 
and command of his father Albert, by going to 
Rome and then visiting France. 

ee By the command of Eanbald I, the Archbishop 
of York, the successor of Elcbert, he went to Rome 
to obtain the pallium for the archbishop from the 
Apostolic — that is, Hadrian I. On his way back 
with the pallium he met King Karl in the city of 
Parma. 1 The king addressed him with great 
persuasiveness and many prayers, begging that 
after completing his embassage he would come 
and join him in France. The king had become 
acquainted with him some years before, for Alcuin 
had been sent on a legation to him by the arch- 
bishop of the time/'' 

We may interrupt our author's narrative at this 
point to state that the fact and the date of this 
former visit to Karl are recorded in the Life of 
Hadrian I, as also the further fact, not here hinted 
at, that Karl on that occasion sent Alcuin on to 
Rome. "In the year 773 Karl sent to Hadrian 
an embassy, consisting of the most holy bishop 

1 We can date this meeting fairly closely by the fact that 
Karl granted a privilegium to Parma on March 15, 781. 



22 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

George/ the religious abbat Uulfhard, 2 and the 
king's favourite counsellor Albinus." 

We may now return to the author of the Life. 
He tells us, to quote his own words, that when 
Karl begged Alcuin to come to him, Alcuin 
desired to do what would be useful, and there- 
fore asked permission of his own king, Alfwald, 
and of his archbishop, Eanbald I, to leave his 
mastership of the School of York. He obtained 
permission, but on condition that he should in time 
come back to them. Under Christ's guidance he 
came to Karl. Karl embraced him as his father, 3 
by whom he had been introduced to the liberal 
arts, in the study of which he could be somewhat 
cooled, but in his fervour he could never be too 
completely saturated with them. After Alcuin 
had spent some little time with him, he gave him 
two monasteries, that of Bethlehem, otherwise 
called Ferrieres, 4 and that of St. Lupus 5 of Troyes. 

1 The bishop George whom we know as intimately con- 
cerned with the affairs of Hadrian I and with British 
interests was Bishop of Ostia. If this is he, we shall hear 
of him again in connexion with the Archbishopric of 
Lichfield. 

2 Abbat of St. Martin of Tours, a curiously early con- 
nexion of Alcuin with his future home. To him Alcuin 
addressed the earliest letter of his which is extant ; see 
p. 205. 

3 Alcuin was about seven years older than Karl. They 
were at this time about forty-six and thirty-nine years of age. 

4 St. Peter of Ferrieres, dio. Sens. 

5 Alcuin makes mention of his residence here during the 
autumn of 798 in his correspondence with Gisla, Karl's 
sister ; see p. 253. The Museum of Troyes is housed in the 
old buildings of the Abbey of St. Loup. 



CHAPTER II 

Alcuin finally leaves England. — The Adoptionist heresy. 
— Alcuin's retirement to Tours. — His knowledge of secrets. 
— Karl and the three kings his sons. — Fire at St. Martin's, 
Tours. — Eeferences to the life of St. Martin. — Alcuin's 
writings. — His interview with the devil. — His last days. 

At length Alcuin felt that he ought not, without 
the authority o£ his own king and bishop, to 
desert the place in which he had been educated, 
tonsured, and ordained deacon. He asked leave 
of the great king to return to his fatherland. 
Karl received his request in a flattering manner. 
"We may suppose that Alcuin retained an accurate 
recollection of the pleasant words and of his own 
answer, and reported them eventually to Sigulf, 
probably with a feeling that he had made a 
Yorkshire rejoinder to the king's rather pointed 
balance-sheet. On a formal occasion such as this, 
they probably addressed each other as scholars, 
in the Latin tongue, so that in reading the Life 
we seem to hear them speaking the actual words 
reported. The manner of address we may take 
to be correctly represented. 

" Karl. Illustrious master, — of earthly riches 
we have enough, wherewith it is our joy to honour 
thee. With thy riches, long desired by us and 
scarce anywhere found, we pray thee illumine us 
in the wealth of thy piety. 

"Alcuin. My lord king, — I am not inclined 
to oppose thy will, when it shall have been con- 



24 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

firmed by the authority of the canons. Endowed 
in my paternal country with no small heritage, 
I am delighted to fling it away and stand here 
a pauper, so that I may be of use to thee. Thy 
part is only this, — to obtain for me the permission 
of my own king and bishop/' 

Karl was at last persuaded to let him go ; but 
he was not satisfied until it was settled that when 
Alcuin came back again he would stay with him 
always. 

Some years after he came back to Karl a second 
time, he was placed at the head of the Monastery 
of St. Martin of Tours. In a godly manner he 
ruled this with his other monasteries. He cor- 
rected the lives of those under him as far as he 
could. Some were untamed when they came under 
his rule, but he so bestirred himself that they 
became reasonable, of honest morals, and seekers 
after truth. That is the author's statement. We 
shall hear more on the subject in the course of our 
study. 

" Meantime the heresy hateful to God, which 
flourished in the parts of Spain, asserting that the 
Son of God is adoptive according to the flesh, 
is brought to the ears of Karl. The great king, 
in all things catholic, looked into this, and strove 
with all his might that the seed of the devil 
should be destroyed, and the tares completely 
eradicated from the wheat of God. Summoning 
to him Albinus his instructor from Tours, and the 
wretched Felix the constructor of this heresy from 
the parts of Spain, he collected a great synod of 
bishops in the imperial palace of Aix. Seated 
himself in the midst, he ordered Felix, who was 



ALCUIN EXPOSES FELIX. 25 

most unwilling", to dispute in argument with the 
most learned Albinus on the nature of the Son 
of God according' to the flesh. What silence 
reigned among the bishops ! How clear and un- 
answerable, with the authority of Karl, was the 
master's confession and defence of the faith ! 
Felix tried to hide himself in all sorts of obscuri- 
ties; Albinus pierced him with more and more 
darts, at such length that he c went through almost 
all the cities of Israel 1 till the Son of Man should 
come'. Little else was done from the second to 
the seventh day of the week. At length his stu- 
pidity was laid bare to all. The heresy was con- 
futed by the whole of the bishops with apostolic 
authority. To himself alone his folly was foully 
hidden, up to the point when he read with lament- 
able voice the words of Cyril the martyr, turned 
against him by Albinus : That nature which was 
corrupted by the devil is exalted above the angels 
by the triumph of Christ, and is set down at the 
right hand of the Father. When he read this 
sentence, he at last testified by voice and by ex- 
cessive weeping that he had found himself out, 
that he had acted impiously. Any one who thirsts 
to know this more perfectly should read the 
master's letters to Felix and Elipantus, and theirs 
to him. He will then at once learn what he 
desires to know. 

" By permission of Christ/'' the biographer con- 
tinues, "I have up to this point written a little 
about the early part of the Life of Albinus, facts 
that I have supposed to be not known to all. 

1 Matt. x. 23. 



26 ALCUIN OP YORK. 

I have not thought of inserting in this little work 
facts about him which all know. From this point 
I shall attempt to trace to his last days my shaken 
reed of a pen, though it be with contemptible 
roughness. 

'• When he felt himself affected by old age, and 
increasingly by one infirmity, 1 he informed King 
Karl that he wished to retire from the world, as 
he had long had it in mind to do. He asked leave 
to live the monastic life, in accordance with the 
Rule of St. Benedict, at St. Boniface of Fulda, 2 
and to distribute among his disciples the monas- 
teries which had been granted to him, if that 
might be done. But the king, terrible and pious, 
with all regard for Alcuin's request, denied the one 
part, while he received the other gladly. He 
begged that he would reside at Tours, in perfect 
quiet and in the greatest honour, and would not 
refuse to continue the spiritual care of Karl him- 
self and of all the holy Church committed to him ; 
the secular burdens which he had borne, the king-, 
at his request, most willingly portioned out among 
his disciples. Albinus acted as the most wise king 
had asked, seeking what would be useful, not to 
himself but to many ; and at Tours he awaited his 
last day. His manner of life was not inferior to 
the monastic life which he had desired. He 
abounded in fastings, in prayers, in mortification 
of the flesh, in almsgivings, in much celebration 
of psalms and masses, 3 and in the other virtues 

1 He was subject to febrile attacks. 

2 For Alcuin's letter to Fulda, written after Karl's refusal 
of permission, see Appendix A. 

3 " In psalmoruni et missarum multa celebratione." 



ALCUIN S MANNER OF LIFE. 27 

with which it is possible for human nature to be 
adorned. When he had fasted till evening, there 
very frequently was sent from heaven to his mouth 
such sweetness as no human speech could utter; 
whatever he then willed, he could dictate most 
rapidly without any effort, so that he could say, — 
I have loved, Lord, Thy commandments above gold 
and precious stone; how sweet are thy words 
unto my mouth, yea., sweeter than honey and the 
honeycomb. In his youth he had not loved the 
study of the Psalms so much as another kind of 
reading; in his old age he could never have too 
much of them. As has been described in the case 
of his master, 1 he poured forth most secret prayer 
during the day, with long extension of his hands 
in the form of a cross, and with much groaning, 
for he very rarely found tears. This practice he 
passed on to his disciples, of whom the most noble 
was Sigulf, f the little old fellow/ and the mag- 
nanimous Withso 2 ; after them, Fredegisus 3 and 
his companions. In his latest days there clung to 
him assiduously Raganard and Waldramn, who 
still survive; Adalbert of blessed memory, who 
was with him as much as he could, being at that 

1 See p. 13. 

2 Called Witto by Alcuin (ep. 107), and Candidus (106) as 
the Latin rendering of the Teutonic name. 

3 To Fredegisus Alcuin wrote letters on the three kinds 
of visions (257) and on the Trinity (258). He is understood 
to be the " Nathanael '' of other letters. Of Fredegisus, 
Theodulfus, the Bishop of Orleans, wrote to Karl : 

Stet levita decus Fredegis sociatus Osulfo, 

Gnarus uterque artis, doctus uterque bene. 

He was a master in the school of the Palace and afterwards 

Archdeacon. He became Abbat of Cormery, and eventually 

of Tours. 



28 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

time the son of Sigulf, afterwards a venerated 
father as Abbat of Ferrieres; and many others, 
the names of all of whom I trust that Christ 
knows. These with all circumspection earnestly 
studied to do nothing in his presence with which 
he could find fault, and very often in his absence 
too.. For they knew that he was in close com- 
munion with God, and was enlightened by His 
Spirit ; and though with his bodily eyes he could 
no longer see clearly, from old age and infirmity, 
they feared that nothing which they did escaped 
his knowledge. 

" Filled as he was with the Spirit, he foretold 
to some their future, as he did to Raganard about 
Osulf , 1 This Raganard had in his sleep a horrible 
vision, which it is better not to describe. He told 
it the next day to the father, in fear lest it referred 
to himself. The father knew that it referred not 
to Raganard but to Osulf. With great grief he 
spoke thus : ' O Osulf, thou wretched one, how oft 
have I warned thee, how oft corrected ! Much 
labour did I devote to thine uncle, that he should 
reform and begin to walk in the way of the com- 
mandments of God ; and I told him that if he did 
not he would be smitten with the plague of leprosy; 
which thing happened to him. And to thee, my 
son, I predict of Osulf, of whom is this vision, that 
neither in this land, nor in the land of his birth, 
shall he die/ The prediction was true; he died 
in Lombardy. 

1 See the mention of him in previous note. Osulf was 
a household officer of the young King Charles, see p. 250. 
The last words of Alcuin's interpretation of the vision 
suggest that he was an Englishman, one of the youths 
whom Alcuin brought from York as his assistant masters. 



ALCUIN DETECTS RAGANARD. 29 

"This same Raganard, unknown to everybody, 
tried himself by vigils of too long duration and by 
an excess of abstinence ; by this intemperance he 
fell into a most dangerous fever. Father Albinus 
came to visit him, and sent out of the house all 
except Sigulf. Then he rebuked Raganard thus : 
'Why hast thou tried to act so intemperately, 
without advice of any ? I knew that thou didst 
wish to act thus, and therefore it was that I ordered 
thee to sleep in the dwelling in which I sleep. 
But thou didst immediately, when all were asleep, 
secretly light a candle, conceal it in a lantern, and 
going to that place didst watch through the whole 
night/ And then all that he did there secretly, 
known to God alone, he told him of, and added : — 
'When thou didst go with me to the refectory, 
and I bade thee drink wine, in the most crafty 
way thou didst say — I have drunk sufficiently, my 
lord father, with my uncle. But when thou didst 
come to thy uncle, and he too bade thee drink 
wine, thou didst say thou hadst drunk with me. 
Thy will was to delude us, and thou art deceived. 
When thou hast risen up from the fever, take thou 
care never to attempt anything of this kind again/ 

"When Raganard heard this, he turned red, 
and was in great fear, knowing that he was 
caught. In wonder that his secret deeds could 
not escape the knowledge of Albinus, he asked 
how was this made known. To this day he bears 
witness that no man knew it before it was revealed; 
God alone. He repented, and for the rest of 
Alcuin's life he never attempted anything of the 
kind without his advice and command. 

" It very often happened that when messengers 



30 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

were coming to Alcuin from the king and other 
friends, while they were yet a long way off, he 
would tell of their coming and of the cause of their 
coming, what they brought with them, what they 
wished to take back. Certain disciples, when they 
heard him speak thus, set it down to the folly of 
an old man, till it was proved to be true. Benedict 1 , 
the man of the Lord, who beyond all monks was 
bound in intimacy with Alcuin, used often to come 
to him from the parts of Gothia, to obtain advice 
for himself and his monks. On one occasion Benedict 
wished to come secretly, unknown to any one at 
Tours, so that Alcuin should not know till he stood 
in the doorway. When he was by no means near 
Tours, Albums summoned an attendant, and said 
to him, f Hasten to meet Benedict in such and such 
a place, and tell him to come to me quickly/ The 
messenger did as he was told, and on the third day 
arrived at the place, found Benedict there, and 
delivered his message. Astonished that his plan 
was discovered, Benedict went with all haste to 
Tours. When they had joyously kissed one another, 
Benedict, the reverend father, began suppliantly, 
r Lord father, who foretold to thee my arrival ? ' 
He answered, ' No man told me by word of mouth.' 
Benedict asked again, ( Who then, my lord ? Per- 
haps thou hast heard in a letter from some one ? ' 
He replied, ' Of a truth, not in a letter.' Again 

1 This was Benedict, the Abbat of Aniane in Languedoc. 
That region is here spoken of as Gothia, because the Goths 
had settled about Toulouse in the fifth century. The fact 
that Benedict used often to come to consult Alcuin is an 
interesting illustration of the disregard of distance in those 
days. As the crows fly, Toulouse is some 270 miles from 
Tours, and the journey was a long and arduous one. 



ALCUIN AND BENEDICT. 31 

Benedict asked, ' If neither from the words of any 
man, nor from any man's letter, thou knewest this 
beforehand, pray, my father, in what way didst 
thou know it? — tell me/ Albinus said, ' Do not 
interrogate me further on this/ There the matter 
ended. When the venerable man Benedict was 
minded to return, he asked Albinus to tell him in 
what special words he prayed, when he prayed for 
himself. Albinus said, ' This is what I ask of 
Christ: — Lord, grant me to understand my sins, 
and to make true confession, and to do fitting 
penance ; and grant unto me remission of my sins.' 
The godly man Benedict said, 'Let us add, my 
father, to this thy prayer, one word, namely this, 
after remission, save me/ Albinus rejoiced, and 
said, ( Let it be so, most reverent son, let it be so.' 
Benedict then asked another question, would he 
tell him what were the words that silently moved 
his lips when he saw the Cross and bent before it ? 
Albinus answered, ' Thy Cross we adore, O Lord ; 
Thy glorious Passion we recall. Have mercy on 
us, Thou Who didst die for us.' Albinus then saw 
him on his way for a short distance, and sent him 
back rejoicing to his own place and people/' 

The biographer next sets before us a remarkable 
picture of the four most important personages of 
the time. 

" The great king and powerful emperor Karl, 
wishing to offer prayer and to have some mutually 
desired conversation with Alcuin, paid a visit to 
the tomb of the holy Martin at Tours, with his 
sons Charles, Pepin, and Louis. The emperor 
took Alcuin by the hand, and said to him privately, 
( My lord master, which of these sons of mine does 



32 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

it seem to thee that I shall have as my successor 
in this honour to which God has raised me, all 
unworthy ? } Alcuin turned his face towards 
Louis, the youngest of the three, and the most 
remarkable for his humility, on account of which 
he was regarded by many as of little account, and 
said, 'In the humble Louis thou shalt have an 
illustrious successor/ The emperor alone heard 
what he said. But when, later on, sitting on the 
spot where he wished to be buried, Alcuin saw 
these same three kings 1 enter the Church of 
St. Stephen for prayer, with head erect, and Louis 
with head bent, he said to those who stood by — 
( Do you see that Louis is more humble than his 
brothers? You will most certainly see him the 
most exalted successor of his father.' When with 
his own hand he administered to them the Com- 
munion of the Body of Christ and the Blood, the 
same Louis, most noted above all for humility, bent 
before the holy father and kissed his hand. 2 The 
man of the Lord said to Sigulf who stood by, 
( Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and 
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 
Certainly the Frankish land shall rejoice to have 
this man emperor after his father/ That this 
has taken place, the biographer adds, we both see 
and rejoice. 3 They who seemed to be cedars are 

1 The three sons of Karl were all of them kings (prac- 
tically sub-kings) of one part or another of his vast domains. 
The great partition of the empire was not arranged by 
Charlemagne till after Alcuin's death. 

2 It will be borne in mind that Alcuin was only in 
deacon's orders. 

3 This is one of the various indications of date which 
enable us to calculate the time at which the biography was 
written. 



KARL AND HIS SONS. 33 

cast down, and the fruitful olive tree in the house 
of God is exalted. 1 

"The father Alcuin had with great care in- 
structed Karl in liberal arts and in divine scripture, 
so that he became the most learned of all kings 
of the Franks who have been since the coming of 
Christ. He taught him, also, which of the Psalms 
he should sing throughout his whole life for 
various occasions ; for times of penitence, with 
litany and entreaties and prayers ; for times of 
special prayer ; of praising God ; of any tribula- 
tion ; and for his being moved to exercise himself 
in divine praise. Any one who wishes to know 
all this may read it in the little book which he 
wrote to Karl on the principles of prayer/'' 2 

At this point in his narrative the biographer 
relates the scrape into which cs the little old fellow " 
got in connexion with his secret study of Vergil, 
already described on page 2. As a further instance 
of Alcum's remarkable knowledge of what was 
going on, he adds the interesting little story about 
a present of wine to Cormery which will be found 
on p. 223. Then comes the following amusing 
account, with its revelation of a dislike of Karl's 
favourites the foreigners, a dislike which Eginhard 
thus frankly reports in his vivid picture of the 
great King, 3 " He loved foreigners, and took great 
pains to attract them to him and to maintain them, 
so much so that the multitude of them not un- 

1 Charles and Pepin died before their father, and Louis 
became sole emperor and ruler of all that Charlemagne had 
held. 

2 With regard to some possible confusion here between 
Karl and his eldest son Charles, see p. 246. 

3 Vita, c. 21. 

D 



34 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

reasonably seemed a heavy burden, not to the 
palace only but to the kingdom. His greatness of 
mind, however, was such, that he was not troubled 
by a burden of this kind ; indeed even great in- 
conveniences he regarded as compensated by the 
praise won by liberality and by the reward of good 
report." 

This is the story. The presbyter Aigulf 1 , an 
Anglo-Saxon 2 himself too, came to Tours to visit 
the father. When he was standing at the door of 
Alcum's dwelling, there happened to be four of the 
brethren of Tours talking together. When they 
saw him, they said one to another, not imagining 
that he knew anything of their language, <( Here's 
a Briton, or a Scot 3 , come to see that other Briton 
inside. O God, deliver this monastery from these 
Britons ! Like bees coming back to the mother- 
bee, these all come to this man of ours ! " What 
would we not give to have this in the words in 
which they spoke it, instead of in the author's 
Latin. The presbyter went into Alcuin's dwelling, 
and, after other matters, told him what he had 
heard. " Do you know which they are ? " Alcuin 
asked. " Indeed I do not. I could not for shame 

1 It is frequently impossible to calculate a man's nation- 
ality from his name in the century with which we are deal- 
ing, and it is unsafe to guess at it. Aigulf, for instance, 
was the name of the Gothic Count of Maguelone, the cup- 
bearer of Karl's son, Pepin of Aquitaine, and father of 
Benedict of Aniane. 

2 Engelsaxo. 

3 " Venit iste Britto vel Scotto." The Scot in those days 
was the Irishman. We may imagine that "Scotto'' was 
formed derisively to match "Britto''. But it should be 
remembered that in Alcuin's dialogue on grammar the dis- 
putants are Saxo and Franco, a very similar formation. 



FKENCH DISLIKE OF FOREIGNERS. 



look at them when they said that/' Alcuin said, 
" I am sure I know who they are/'' He called in 
some of the brethren by name, and said, " These 
are they/'' Greatly grieved by their folly, Alcuin 
yet spared them, saying, " May Christ, the Son of 
God, spare them/'' Then he gave them each a cup 
of wine to drink, and without severity sent them 
away. Aigulf afterwards made diligent inquiry, 
and found that they were the right men. We of 
to-day may remark that Alcuin evidently knew the 
characters of his pupils ; but his ideas of discipline 
differed from ours. We should not have let them 
know that we had heard personal remarks of that 
kind ; and we should not have given them glasses 
of wine. We may remember the words of Arch- 
bishop Temple to Bishop Creighton, when the 
Bishop had received the late Mr. John Kensit for 
an interview at Fulham, and had given him tea. 
" It was all right to receive the man ; but you 
shouldn't ha' given him tea." 

As we have seen, the biographer on the whole 
confines himself to those parts of Alcuin's Life 
which were not of common knowledge. But there 
was one story of sufficient importance in his judge- 
ment to be related at length, although it was well 
known. We may well take the same view, and be 
grateful to our author for having departed from 
his self-imposed limitations. 

" I ought not ", he writes, " to pass over in 
silence one fact which many know. The Keeper 
of the Sepulchre of St. Martin, who provided the 
wax and all the vestments which pertained to the 
basilica itself, entering with a lighted candle the 
sacristy where they were kept, fixed the candle on a 
d2 



36 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

spike, and when he left he forgot to take it with him. 
He locked the door and went away. The burning 
candle fell upon some wax and sent a great flame 
which set fire to the vestments hanging on the pegs ; 
and the vestments sent the flame up to the roof. 1 
When the warden saw this, he fled with the key 
to another monastery. 2 People rushed from all 
sides ; they beat at the door, but all their efforts 
failed to burst it open. The clerks threw out of 
the windows any valuables they had in their abode. 
The Church of St. Martin was denuded of some 
vestments, and no one expected anything but the 
burning of the whole monastery. The roof was 
all stripped of lead. Albinus came ; he was now 
blind. He asked what w T as being done. One of 
his disciples, his l little old fellow \ said, ' Come 
away, father, or you will be killed by the lead 
they are throwing dow r n or burned to death.' 
When Albinus was willing to go, Yetulus said to 

1 It is of at least local interest to remark that the latest 
of many burnings of York Minster, Alcuin's old abode, was 
caused very much in the same way. Carpenters had been 
at work, in the bell-chamber of the south-west tower, and 
left a candle burning on the table where they had been 
planing wood. The candle burned low and fell over on to 
some shavings, to which it set fire, and thence the flame 
grew and grew till it burst out, and the great fire of May 20, 
1840, was the result. This present writer was a boy of six 
at the time, and from his bedroom window saw it all, from 
the beginning, through the sounding boards of the chamber. 
He was eventually carried off in a blanket, as the tower 
would have fallen into his father's house if it had come 
down. The house, it may be added, was the house in which 
Guy Fawkes was born. See also p. 82. 

' 2 The word monasterium has so many meanings that 
we cannot be sure what precisely is here meant. It may 
possibly mean the maius monasterium, Marmoutier, see 
p. 221. 



r 



FIKE AT ST. MARTIN'S. 37 



him, ' My lord father, go to the sepulchre of the 
lord Martin, and intercede for us/ Albinus did as 
was suggested, and when he got to the place, he 
stretched himself on the ground in the form of 
a cross, and uttered groans heavenward. As soon 
as Albinus cast himself on the ground, in some 
wonderful and incredible way the whole fire was 
put out, as completely as if extinguished by a great 
river. When the clerks saw this, they rushed in 
joyous stupefaction to the spot where Albinus lay 
prostrate before the sepulchre of St. Martin, in the 
form of a cross, praying to God for them. _ They 
raised him from the ground, blessing God who 
through the prayers of Albinus had saved the 
whole monastery of Saint Martin from being 
consumed by fire. These be thy worthy examples, 
holy Martin, who once when thou wouldest escape 
the fire couldest not; turned to God in prayer 
thou hast extinguished this fire that threatened 
us. Lofty of a truth is the faith that by its 
ardour can extinguish globes of fire. Nor is it 
a matter of wonder that the elements leave their 
proper force at the prayers and commands of 
Albinus, since he rests in the heart of Him who 
loves them that love Him, and permits them not 
to be singed by the flame when they walk in fire. 
Thee in these we adore, Thee we glorify, Thee we 
laud, who, as Thou hast deigned to make promises 
to Thy servants who keep Thy commandments, 
hast shown them forth most clearly by Thy works 
in Thine own Albinus. Thou hast said, O Christ 
Jesus, whatsoever ye shall ask of Me in My name, 
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in 
the Son." 



38 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

It will have been noticed that this passage from 
the Life attributes to St. Martin a failure to prevent 
the progress of a fire. The reference appears at 
first sight to be to the eleventh chapter of the 
Life of St. Martin by Sulpicius Severus \ written 
some four hundred years before the fire here 
described, and published in the lifetime of St. 
Martin, whom Severus had visited at Tours for 
the special purpose of learning the facts of his 
life. 

° In a certain town, Martin set fire to a very 
ancient and famous pagan shrine. A house was 
attached to the walls of the temple, and the wind 
blew the globes of fire on to this house. When 
Martin saw this, he climbed rapidly to the roof 
of the house, and faced the flames. Then you 
would see the flame turn back in a marvellous 
manner against the force of the wind, the two 
elements fighting the one against the other. 
Thus by the virtue of Martin the fire operated 
only where it was bidden. - " 

This is the only account in the Life of St. 
Martin to which the remark in the text could apply. 
But, as a matter of fact, the occasion referred to 
was quite different from this. The little story is 
an interesting example of the keenness of criticism 
in those very early times, and of the need of imme- 
diate corrections. 

The contemporary readers of the Life were 
well aware of the fact that Martin himself was 

1 The historian here quoted, a contemporary of St. Martin, 
must not be confused wrlh Sulpicius, Archbishop of Bourges, 
a. d. 584, surnamed Severus to distinguish him from a 
second Sulpicius Archbishop of Bourges, surnamed Pius, 
who died a. d. G-i4. 



MIRACLES OF ST. MARTIN. 39 

once half-burned. Knowing this, they fastened 
on the passage quoted, and spoke in a depreciatory 
way of Martin. They asked how could he be so 
great as to prevent houses being burned, if he was 
not great enough to prevent himself from being 
set on fire and nearly burned to death. These 
depreciatory remarks came to the ears of Sulpicius, 
and the very next day 1 , he sat down and wrote 
a letter to the presbyter Eusebius, to tell the actual 
facts of the other story with which unfavourable 
comparison has been made. The facts were as 
follows : — 

The saint was visiting his diocese in midwinter. 
A bed had been prepared for him in a vestry, 
which was warmed by a fire below the floor. The 
pavement was rough and dilapidated. They had 
made for the saint a specially soft and comfortable 
bed of straw, but his practice was to sleep on the 
bare ground. Not being able to endure the 
blandient comfort of the straw, he threw it away 
and slept on the ground. By midnight the fire 
below had got at the straw through the crevices 
in the pavement, and Martin awoke to find the 
vestry full of fire. Then came, as he told 
Sulpicius, the temptation of the devil. Martin 
tried to escape, instead of turning to prayer. He 
rushed to the door and struggled with the bolt, in 
vain. The flames caught his dress and set it on 
fire. He fell down, and then remembered to pray. 
The flames felt the change and spared him. The 
monks, who had heard the fire crackling and roar- 

1 " Hesterna die indicator mihi," &c. We fortunately 
have the letter. It is Epistle I of the collected works of 
Sulpicius, 



40 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

ing, burst open the door and looked for his dead 
body; they found him safe and sound. He con- 
fessed to Sulpicius, not without groaning, that the 
devil had for the time overcome him. In these 
modern times, to lie down on the floor is a common 
precaution against being smothered by the smoke 
in a burning room. 

This Life of St. Martin is very interesting read- 
ing. It is too tempting to give the substance of 
the chapter previous to the one given above. 
The saint was at his usual work of destroying a 
very ancient temple. When he had accomplished 
this, he set to work to fell a pine-tree which stood 
near. The chief priest and the pagan crowd drew 
the line at that, and would not allow it. Martin 
told them there was nothing worthy of worship in 
a piece of wood ; it was dedicated to a demon and 
it must come down. Thereupon a crafty pagan, 
seeing his way to getting rid of this objectionable 
destroyer of temples, and regarding the sacred tree 
as well lost for such a gain, proposed a bargain. 
"If you have sufficient confidence in your God 
whom you say you serve, we will ourselves cut 
down the tree, and it shall fall upon you ; if your 
Lord is with you, as you say, you will escape with 
your life/'' The bargain was struck on both sides. 
The tree leaned in a certain direction, so that 
there was no doubt where it would fall. Martin 
was tied by the rustics in the right place, and 
they began to cut with their axes. The tree 
began to nod, leaned more and more to the precise 
spot they had selected. At last they had cut deep 
enough; the crash of the rending trunk was 
heard ; the monks turned pale ; the saint raised 



ALCUIN CURES DISEASES. 41 

his hand and made the sign of the cross; at the 
moment a whirlwind came and blew the tree far 
to one side. 

We must now return to the life of St. Martin's 
faithful follower, Alcuin. 

<c This also must be mentioned to the praise of 
the Lord, that very frequently many infirm people, 
when they came to Albinus and received his bene- 
diction with faith, recovered bodily health. On 
a certain occasion, as is reported by some of the 
chief authorities, a poor man came, having his 
eyesight obstructed by a grievous dimness. He 
reached the door of the outer dwelling of Albinus, 
and begged that water be given him with which 
his eyes might be bathed ; for he said it had been 
revealed to him that if he could wash his eyes with 
some of it he would recover his sight. 1 Unknown to 
Albinus, some of the water in which he had washed 
his own face and eyes was secretly given to the 
poor man who begged for water. The poor man 
bathed his eyes with the water, in full faith ; the 
dimness disappeared, and he recovered his clearness 
of sight. We, too, are enlightened by thy sweat, 
father, and the sins of our souls are washed by thy 
pious doctrine. Thou, too, didst scarce see any- 
thing with thy bodily sight, but wast always 
engaged in lightening the eyes of others ; and those 
whom thou couldest not enlighten in bodily presence 
thou didst in absence instruct by letters, writing 
many things profitable to the whole church. 

1 It may be that we have here an early hint of a practice 
of which we have record in later times. The water which 
had been used for washing the tomb of St. Martin was held 
to have healing properties in the later middle ages. 



42 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

" For at the request of Karl he wrote a most 
useful book on the Holy Trinity ; also on rhetoric, 
dialectic, and music. He wrote to Gundrad on the 
nature of the soul. At the most honourable request 
of the ladies Gisla and Rotruda, he composed a 
remarkable book on the Gospel of St. John, partly 
his own and partly taken from the holy Augustine. 
He wrote also on four Epistles of Paul, to the 
Ephesians, to Titus, to Philemon, and to the 
Hebrews ; * to Fredegisus on the Psalms ; 2 to 
Count Wido 3 homilies on the principal vices and 
virtues; to his own Sigulf very useful notes on 
Genesis; on the Proverbs of Solomon, on Eccle- 
siastes, on the Song of Songs clearly, briefly, in- 
describably. Under the names Frank and Saxon 4 
he wrote a most able book on grammar in the form 
of question and answer. He collected two volumes 
of homilies from many works of the Fathers. He 
wrote on orthography. On the 118th Psalm (our 
119th) he wrote with a pen of gold. There are 
many other writings in which any one who reads 
and studies them attentively will find no small 
edification, as in the letters which he wrote to 

1 Believed at that time to have been written by St. Paul. 
a In our editions, Arno and not Fredegisus was the 
recipient of this treatise. 

3 Presumably the same as Withso and Witto. 

4 "Franci et Saxonis," the author says. But in the dis- 
putatious dialogue they are called Saxo and Franco. Saxo 
addresses Franco as Franco ! but on one occasion he slips 
into the vocative France : " En habes, France, de adverbio 
satis." Fr. li Non satis ; pausemus tamen ad horam." Saxo. 
"Pausemus." The dialogue is much of the same kind as 
that found in Aldhelm's works a hundred years earlier 
between Magister and Discipulus. See my St. Aldhelm, ch. 
xii. 



ALCUIN AND THE DEVIL. 43 

many persons. In these and like works lie spent 
the remainder of his days, living on earth the life 
of heaven. Preparing* himself in his latest days 
for the coming of the Son of Man, that he might 
go in with Him to the wedding, he washed every 
night his couch with tears, 1 always fortifying him- 
self with the intercessions of the saints, whose 
solemnities he regularly celebrated, lest he should 
be pierced by any darts of the ancient enemy, who 
never could steal into his dwelling so secretly as 
not to be at once detected by him and driven out 
by the sign of the Cross. 

ff 0n a certain night, when he desired to pour 
forth prayer in secret after his wont, with chanting 
of Psalms, he was oppressed by very heavy sleep. 
But he rose from his couch, and put on his cape ; 
and when again he was oppressed with sleep, he 
took off all his clothes except his shirt and drawers. 
The sleepiness continuing, he took a censer, and 
going to the place where fire was kept burning, 
he filled it with live coal and put incense on it, 
and a sweet odour filled the chamber. In that 
hour the devil presented himself to him in bodily 
form, as it were a large man, very black and 
misshapen and bearded, hurling at him darts of 
blasphemy. 'Why dost thou act the hypocrite, 
Alcuin ? ' 2 he asked. c Why dost thou attempt to 
appear just before men, when thou art a deceiver 
and a great dissimulator ? Dost thou suppose that 
for these feignings of thine Christ can hold thee 

1 We have seen from the author that he could very seldom 
shed tears, p. 27. 

2 There is a delicate touch in putting into the devil's 
mouth the literal name and not the intimate name. 



44 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

to be acceptable ? ' But the soldier of Christ, 
invincible, standing with David in the tower 1 
builded for an armoury, wherein there hang a 
thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men, said 
with a heavenly voice, ' The Lord is my light and 
my salvation ; whom then shall I fear ? He is 
the strength of my life ; of whom then shall I be 
afraid? Hear my crying, O Lord; incline thine 
ear to my calling, my King and my God, for unto 
Thee do I make my prayer/ With these and 
other verses of the Psalms the enemy was at 
length put to flight ; Albinus completed his prayer 
and went to rest. 2 At that time only one of his 
disciples, Waltdramn by name, who is still alive, 
was watching with him ; he saw all this from 
a place of concealment, a witness of this thing 
that took place/' 

St. Martin himself once had a meeting with the 
devil 3 . There came into his cell a purple light, 
and one stood in the midst thereof clad in a royal 
robe, having on his head a diadem of gold and 
precious stones, his shoes overlaid with gold, his 
countenance serene, his face full of joy, looking 
like anything but the devil. The devil spoke first. 
" Know, Martin, whom you behold. I am Christ. 
I am about to descend from heaven to the world. 
I willed first to manifest myself to thee/'' Martin 
held his tongue. " Why dost thou doubt, Martin, 
whom thou seest ? I am Christ/' Then the Spirit 

1 Cant. iv. 4. 

2 A cynic might remark that Alcuin did not answer the 
clever question of the enemy. He could not deny that he 
was elaborately deceiving his attendants. 

* Sulpicius Severus, Life, c. 25. 



ST. MARTIN AND THE DEVIL. 45 

revealed that this was the devil, not God, and he 
answered, " The Lord Jesus did not predict that 
He would come again resplendent with purple and 
diadem. I will not believe that Christ has come, 
except in the form in which He suffered, bearing 
the stigmata of the Cross/'' Thereupon the ap- 
parition vanished like smoke, leaving so very bad 
a smell that there was no doubt it was the devil. 
"This account I had from the mouth of Martin 
himself/'' Sulpicius adds. 

"The father used a little wine, in accordance 
with the apostle's precept, not for the pleasure of 
the palate, but by reason of his bodily weakness. 1 
In every kind of way he avoided idleness; either 
he read, or he wrote, or he taught his disciples, or 
he gave himself to prayer and the chanting of 
Psalms, yielding only to unavoidable necessities 
of the body. He was a father to the poor, more 
humble than the humble, an inviter to piety of 
the rich, lofty to the proud, a discerner of all, and 
a marvellous comforter. He celebrated every day 
many solemnities of masses 2 with honourable dili- 
gence, having proper masses deputed for each day 
of the week. Moreover, on the Lord's day, never 
at any time after the light of dawn began to 

1 Theodulf of Orleans makes a little apology to Karl for 
Alcuin's use of wine and beer (not English beer ! see p. 267) : 
Aut si, Bacche, tui aut Cerealis pocla liquoris 
Porgere praecipiat, fors et utrumque volet ; 
Quo melius doceat, melius sua fistula cantet, 
Si doctrinalis pectoris antra riget. 
If he bids bring forth cups of thy liquor, Bacchus, or cups 
of the liquor of corn, and perhaps takes both ; it is that he 
may teach the better, the better may sing his stave, if he 
moistens the recesses of his instructive breast. 

3 "Celebrabat omni die missarum solemnia multa." 



46 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

appear did he allow himself to slumber, but swiftly 
preparing himself as deacon with his own priest 
Sigulf he performed the solemnities of special 
masses till the third hour, and then with very- 
great reverence he went to the public mass. His 
disciples, when they were in other places, especially 
when they assisted ad opus Dei, carefully studied 
that no cause of blame be seen in them by him. 

" The time had come when Albinus had a desire 
to depart and be with Christ. He prayed with all 
his will that if it might be, he should pass from 
the world on the day on which the Holy Spirit 
was seen to come upon the apostles in tongues of 
fire, and filled their hearts. Saying for himself 
the vesper office, in the place which he had chosen 
as his resting-place after death, namely, near 
the Church of St. Martin, he sang through the 
evangelic hymn of the holy Mary with this anti- 
phon 1 > ' O Key of David, and sceptre of the house 
of Israel, who openest and none shutteth, shuttest 
and none openeth, come and lead forth from the 
house of his prison this fettered one, sitting in 
darkness and the shadow of death/ Then he said 
the Lord's Prayer. Then several Psalms — Like 
as the hart desireth the water-brooks. O how 
amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of hosts. 
Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house. Unto 
Thee lift I up mine eyes. One thing I have 
desired of the Lord. Unto Thee, O Lord, will 
I lift up my soul. 

" He spent the season of Lent, according to his 
custom, in the most worthy manner, with all 

1 Based on Isa. xxii. 22. 



ALCUINS DEATH. 47 

contrition of flesh and spirit and purifying of habit. 
Every night he visited the basilicas of the saints 
which are within the monastery of St. Martin/ 
washing himself clean of his sins with heavy groans. 
When the solemnity of the Resurrection of the 
Lord was accomplished, on the night of the 
Ascension he fell on his bed, oppressed with languor 
even unto death, and could not speak. On the 
third day before his departure he sang with ex- 
ultant voice his favourite antiphon, f O key of 
David/ and recited the verses mentioned above. 
On the day of Pentecost, the matin office having 
been performed, at the very hour at which he had 
been accustomed to attend masses, at opening dawn, 
the holy soul of Albinus is 2 released from the body, 
and by the ministry of the celestial deacons, having 
with them the first martyr Stephen and the arch- 
deacon Laurence, with an army of angels, he is 
led to Christ, whom he loved, whom he sought; 
and in the bliss of heaven he has for ever the 
fruition of the glory of Him whom in this world 
he so faithfully served. " 

The Annals of Pettau enable us to fill in some 
details of Alcuin's death. Pettau was not far 
from Salzburg, and therefore the monastery was 
likely to be well informed. Arno of Salzburg, 
Alcum's great admiration and his devoted personal 
friend, would see to it that in his neighbourhood 
all ecclesiastics knew the details. The seizure on 
the occasion of his falling on his bed was a para- 
lytic stroke. It occurred, according to the Annals 

1 See p. 211. 

2 The biographer here passes in a telling manner to the 
present tense. ' 



48 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

from which we are quoting, on the fifth day of the 
week on the eighth of the Ides of May, that is, 
on May 8 ; but in that year, 804, Ascension Day 
fell on May 9, so that for the eighth of the Ides 
we must read the seventh of the Ides. The seizure 
took place at vesper tide, after sunset. He lived 
on till May 19, Whitsunday, on which day he died, 
just as the day broke. 

" On that night," to return to the Life, " above 
the church of the holy Martin there was seen an 
inestimable clearness of splendour, so that to persons 
at a distance it seemed that the whole was on fire. 
By some, that splendour was seen through the 
whole night, to others it appeared three times in 
the night. Joseph the Archbishop of Tours testified 
that he and his companions saw this throughout 
the night. Many that are still sound in body 
testify the same. To more persons, however, this 
brightness appeared in the same manner, not on 
that but on a former night, namely, on the night 
of the first Sunday after the Ascension. 

"At that same hour there was displayed to a 
certain hermit in Italy the army of the heavenly 
deacons, sounding forth the ineffable praises of 
Christ in the air; in the midst of whom Alchuin 1 
stood, clothed with a most splendid dalmatic, 
entering with them into heaven to minister with 
perennial joy to the Eternal Pontiff. This hermit 
on that same day of Pentecost told what he had 
seen to one of the brethren of Tours, who was 
making his accustomed way to visit the thresholds 

1 Again the use of Alcuin's baptismal name at a critical 
point. 



THE MIRACLES OF THE .COMB. 49 

of the Apostles. 1 The hermit asked him these 
questions, — 'Who is that Abbat that lives at 
Tours, in the monastery of the holy Martin ? By 
what name is he called ? And was he well in 
body when you left ? ' The brother replied, ( He 
is called Alchuin, and he is the best teacher in all 
France. When I started on my way hither, 
I left him well/ The solitary made rejoinder, with 
tears, that he was indeed enjoying the very happiest 
health ; and he told him what he had seen at day- 
break that day. When the brother got back to 
Tours, he related what he had heard. 

" Father Sigulf, with certain others, washed the 
body of the father with all honour, and placed it 
on a bier. Now Sigulf had at the time a great 
pain in the head, but being by faith sound in mind, 
he found a ready cure for his head. Raising his 
eyes above the couch of the master, he saw the 
comb 2 with which he was wont to comb his head. 
Taking it in his hands he said, ( I believe, Lord 
Jesus, that if I combed my head with this my 
master's comb, my head would at once be cured by 
his merits.' The moment he drew the comb 
across his head, that part of the head which it 
touched was immediately cured, and thus by 
combing his head all round he lost the pain com- 
pletely. Another of his disciples, Eangist by 
name, was grievously afflicted with immense pain 
in his teeth. By Sigulf 's advice he touched his 

1 This is one of the endless number of cases in which it is 
made quite clear that the original attraction to Home was 
not the asserted bishopric of Peter, but the fact of the tombs 
of Peter and Paul. The cult of these two chiefs, princes of 
the Apostles, was the source of the reputation of Rome. See 
Appendix D. 2 See p. 268. 

E 



50 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

teeth with the comb, and forthwith, because he 
did it in faith, he received a cure by the merits of 
Alchuin. 

" When Joseph, the bishop of the city of Tours, 
a man good and beloved of God, heard that the 
blessed Alchuin was dead, he came to the spot 
immediately with his clerks, and washing Alchuin's 
eyes with his tears, he kissed him frequently. • He 
advised, moreover, using wise counsel, that he should 
not be buried outside, in the place where the father 
himself had willed, but with all possible honour 
within the basilica of the holy Martin, that the 
bodies of those whose souls are united in heaven 
should on earth lie in one home. And thus it was 
done. Above his tomb was placed, as he had 
directed, a title which he had dictated in his life- 
time, engraved on a plate of bronze let into the 
wall/' 1 

The simple epitaph, apart from the title, ran 
thus : — 

" Here doth rest the lord Alchuuin the Abbat, 
who died in peace on the fourteenth of the Kalends 
of June. When you read, O all ye who pass by, 
pray for him and say, The Lord grant unto him 
eternal rest/'' 

1 The title consists of twenty-four elegiacs, with only- 
ordinary thoughts. 



CHAPTER III 

The large bulk of Alcuin's letters and other writings. — 
The main dates of his life. — Bede's advice to Ecgbert. — 
Careless lives of bishops. — No parochial system. — Inadequacy 
of the bishops' oversight. — Great monasteries to be used as 
sees for new bishoprics, and evil monasteries to be sup- 
pressed. — Election of abbats and hereditary descent. — Evils 
of pilgrimages. — Daily Eucharists. 

We in the diocese of Bristol have a special 
right to study and to make much of the letters 
of Alcuin. Our own great historian, William of 
Malmesbury, had in the library of Malmesbury 
from the year 1100 and onwards an important 
collection of these letters, from which he quotes 
frequently in support of the historical statements 
which he makes. More than that, we know of 
some of the letters of Alcuin only from the quo- 
tations from them thus made by William in this 
diocese some 800 years ago. This is specially 
stated by Abbat Froben, of Ratisbon, who edited 
the letters of Alcuin 140 years ago. 

The letters of Alcuin are addressed to an em- 
peror, to kings, queens, popes, patriarchs, arch- 
bishops, dukes, and others ; so that of Alcuin's 
political importance there can be no question. As 
to his learning, William of Malmesbury pays him 
the great compliment of naming him along with 
our own Aldhelm and with Bede. "Of all the 
Angles/'' he says, 1 "of whom I have read, Alcuin 

1 Gesta Begum, i. 3. 
E 2 



52 ALCUIN OP YORK. 

was, next to the holy Aldhelm and Bede, certainly 
the most learned." 

Alcuin was born in Northumbria in or abont 
the year 735. He left England to live in France 
in 782, returned for a time in 792, and left finally 
in 793. He died in 804. We can thus see how 
he stands in regard of date to those with whom 
we have dealt in former lectures. Aldhelm and 
Wilfrith died in 709, only about a quarter of a 
century before Alcuin's birth. Bede died, accord- 
ing to the usual statement \ in 735,- the year of 
Alcuin's birth. Boniface was martyred in Holland 
in 755, when Alcuin was twenty years old. 

As in the case of Gregory and of Boniface, who 
have been the subjects of the last two courses of 
lectures, the letters of Alcuin are the most im- 
portant — or among the most important — sources of 
information for the history of the times. The 
letters are 236 in number, and they fill 373 
columns of close small print in the large volumes 
of Migne's series. The letters of Boniface are 
not half so numerous, and they occupy considerably 
less than one-third of the space in the same 
print. 

The letters of Alcuin, great as is their number 
and reach, form but a small part of his writings. 
His collected works are six times as large as his 
letters. His commentaries and treatises on the 
Holy Scriptures are much more lengthy than his 
collected letters, more than two-thirds as long 
again. His dogmatic writings are not far from 

1 The mention of Ascension Day in the account of Bede's 
death is in the judgement of some scholars more easily recon- 
ciled with the incidence of Ascension Day in the year t 742. 



ALCUIN S WORK AND DATES. 53 

half as long again as his letters. His book on 
Sacraments and kindred subjects is about two- 
thirds as long as his letters. His biographies of 
saints, his poems, his treatises on teaching and 
learning, are all together nearly as long as the 
letters; and there is almost the same bulk of 
works which are attributed to him on evidence of 
a less conclusive character. 

Put briefly, this was his life. He was a boy at 
my own school, the Cathedral School of York, 
a school which had the credit of educating, 800 
years later, another boy who made a mark on 
history, Guy Fawkes. The head master in Alcuin's 
time was Ecgbert, Archbishop of York"and brother 
of the reigning king of Northumbria; and the 
second master was Albert, Ecgbert's cousin, and 
eventually his successor in the chief mastership 
and in the archbishopric. Alcuin succeeded to 
the practical part of the mastership on Ecgbert's 
death in 766, the new archbishop, Albert, retaining 
the government of the school and the chief part of 
the religious teaching. In 778 Alcuin became in 
all respects the head master of the school, and in 
the end of 780 Albert died, leaving to Alcuin the 
great collection of books which formed the famous 
library of York. 

Alcuin had for some years travelled much on 
the continent of Europe, and he was well ac- 
quainted with its principal scholars. They were 
relatively few in number, learning having sunk 
very low on the continent, while in Northumbria 
it had been and still was at a very high level. 
Alcuin had also made acquaintance with Karl, not 
yet known as Karl der Grosse, Carolus Magnus, 



54 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Charlemagne, the son of Pepin, king as yet of 
the Franks, emperor in the year 800, a man about 
seven years younger than Alcuin. On a visit to 
the continent in 781 he again met Karl, who pro- 
posed to him that he should enter his service as 
master of the school of his palace, and practically 
minister of education for all parts of the vast 
empire over which Karl ruled. In 782 he joined 
Karl, having obtained leave of absence from the 
Northumbrian king Alf weald, Archbishop Ecg- 
bert's great-nephew, and from the new archbishop, 
Eanbald I. From that time onwards he was 
Karl's right-hand man, in matters theological 
as well as educational; and in some matters of 
supreme political importance too. The leave of 
absence lasted some nine or ten years ; at the end 
of that time Alcuin came back for a short time, 
but he soon after terminated his official connexion 
with York, and spent the rest of his life in the 
dominions of Karl. 

Archbishop Ecgbert, Alcuin's master, had been 
a friend of the venerable Bede. The only occasion 
on which we know that Bede left his cloister was 
that of a visit to Ecgbert at York, shortly before 
Bede's death, if he died in 735. "We have it from 
Bede himself that he had promised another visit to 
York in the following year, but was too ill to carry 
out his promise. Failing the opportunity of long 
conversations on the state of the Province of York, 
which corresponded to the bishoprics of York, Lin- 
disfarne, Hexham, and Whithern, Bede set down his 
thoughts on parchment or tablets, and sent them 
to his friend. This Letter of Bede to Ecgbert is 
by very far the most important document of those 



BEDE S LETTER TO ECGBERT. 55 

times which has come down to us ; both because of 
the remarkable mass of information contained in it, 
which we get from no other source, and because of 
the large and broad views of ecclesiastical policy 
which it sets forth. It was no doubt the advice 
and warnings of Bede that led Ecgbert to create 
the educational conditions which developed the in- 
tellect of the most intellectual man of his times, 
the subject of these lectures. Inasmuch as it seems 
probable — indeed, is practically certain — that the 
distressful state of Northumbria was the final cause 
of Alcuin's abandonment of his native land, it will 
be well to summarize the main points of Bede's 
dirge. We should bear in mind the fact that we 
are reading a description by an ecclesiastic, a man 
keenly devoted to the monastic life ; and that the 
date is that of the year of Alcuin's birth. It tells 
us, therefore, something of the setting in which 
Alcuin found himself in early boyhood. 

Ecgbert had only become Bishop of York in the 
year of Bede's visit to him, 734. York was not as 
yet an Archbishopric ; it was raised to that dignity 
in Ecgbert's time. Some writers call Paulinus Arch- 
bishop, because a pall was sent to him by Gregory; 
but the pall did not reach England till after Paulinus 
had run away from York. 

Bede thinks it necessary to urge Ecgbert very 
earnestly to be careful in his talk. He does not 
suppose that Ecgbert sins in this respect, but it is 
matter of common report that some bishops do; 
that they have no men of religion or continence 
with them, but rather such as indulge in laughter 
and jests, in revellings, drunkenness, and other 
pleasures of loose life ; men who feast daily in rich 



56 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

banquets, and neglect to feed their minds on the 
heavenly sacrifice. 

There were in 735 sixteen bishops' sees in Eng- 
land, held in the south by Tatuin of Canterbury, 
Ingwald of London, Daniel of Winchester, Aldwin 
of Lichfield, Alwig of Lindsey, Forthere of Sher- 
born, Ethelfrith of Elmham \ Wilfrid of Worcester, 
Wahlstod of Hereford, Sigga of Selsey, Eadulf of 
Rochester ; and in the north by Ecgbert of York, 
Ethel wold of Lindisfarne, Frithobert of Hexham, 
and Frithwald of Whithern. We may, probably, 
narrow Bede's censure to Lindisfarne and Hexham, 
if he really did, as some assume, refer to his own 
parts. As a Northumbrian myself, I think that 
a long-headed man like Bede, a Northumbrian by 
birth, more probably referred to bishops of the parts 
which we now know as the Southern Province. 
Alcuin's letters, however, show that in his time 
there was much that needed improvement in the 
case of northern bishops as well as southern. 

A bishop in those days had to do the main part 
of the teaching, and preaching, and ministering the 
Sacraments, throughout the diocese. Bede points 
out that Ecgbert's diocese was much too large for 
one man to cover it properly with ministrations. He 
must, therefore, ordain priests, and appoint teachers 
to preach the Word of God in each of the villages ; 
to celebrate the heavenly mysteries ; and especially 
to attend to sacred baptism 2 . The persons so ap- 
pointed must make it their essential business to 

1 The see of Dunwich appears to have been vacant then. 

2 All this tells against the now exploded belief that 
Theodore established the parochial system. His paroichia 
was the diocese. 



BEDE S LETTER TO ECGBERT. 57 

root deep in the memory of the people that Catholic 
Faith which is contained in the Apostles' Creed, 
and in like manner the Lord's Prayer. Those of 
the people who do not know Latin are to say the 
Creed and the Lord's Prayer over and over again in 
their native tongue ; and this rule is not for the 
laity only, but also for clergy and monks who do 
not know Latin, For this purpose, Bede says he 
has often given translations of these two into Eng- 
lish to uneducated priests ; for St. Ambrose declared 
that all the faithful should say the Creed every 
morning, and the English practice was to chant 
the Lord's Prayer very often. How much we of 
to-day would give for just one copy of Bede's Creed 
and Lord's Prayer in English ! 1 

Ecgbert's position in the sight of God, Bede 
says, will be very serious if he neglects to do as he 
advises, especially if he takes temporal gifts or pay- 
ments from those to whom he does not give heavenly 
gifts. This last point Bede presses home with 
affectionate earnestness upon the " most beloved 
Prelate". "We have heard it reported," he says, 
"that there are many villages and dwellings, on 
inaccessible hills and in deep forests, where for 
many years no bishop has been seen, no bishop has 



1 The earliest pieces of English now extant in the original 
form are the inscriptions in Anglian runes on the cross 
erected in 670 in the churchyard of Bewcastle, in memory 
of the sub-king Alchfrith (see p. 9). The main inscription 
runs thus : -fThis sigbecn thun setton hwaetred wothgar 
olwfwolthu aft alkfrithu ean kiining eac oswiung + gebid 
heo sinna sowhula. + This token of victory Hwaetred 
Wothgar Olwfwolthu caused make in memory of Alcfrith 
once king and son of Oswy. -f- Pray for the high sin of his 
soul. See also p. 296. 



58 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

ministered ; and yet no single person has been free 
from the payment of tribute to the bishop; and 
that although not only has he never come to con- 
firm those who have been baptized, but there has 
been no teacher to instruct them in the faith or 
show them the difference between good and evil. 
And if we believe and confess/'' he continues, " that 
in the laying on of hands the Holy Spirit is received, 
it is clear that that gift is absent from those who 
have not been confirmed. When a bishop has, from 
love of money, taken nominally under his govern- 
ment a larger part of the population than he can 
by any means visit with his ministrations in one 
whole year, the peril is great for himself, and great 
for those to whom he claims to be overseer while 
he is unable to oversee them." 

Ecgbert has, Bede tells him, a most ready co- 
adjutor in the King of Northumbria, Ceolwulf, 
Ecgbert's near relative, his first cousin, whom 
Ecgbert's brother succeeded. The [archjbishop 
should advise the King to place the ecclesiastical 
arrangements of the Northumbrian nation on a 
better footing. This would best be done by the 
appointment of more bishops. Pope Gregory had 
bidden Augustine to arrange for twelve bishops in 
the Northern Province, the Bishop of York to 
receive the pall as Metropolitan. Ecgbert should 
aim at that number. It may here be noted that 
in this year of grace 1908 there are still only nine 
diocesan bishops in the Northern Province, besides 
the archbishop, and five of these nine have been 
created in the lifetime of some of us. Bristol 
knows to its heavy cost that Ripon was the first 
of the five. 



bede's letter to ecgbert. 59 



But Bede points out, and here we come to very 
interesting matter, that the negligence of some 
former kings, and the foolish gifts of others, had 
left it very difficult to find a suitable see for a new 
bishop. The monasteries were in possession every- 
where. It may be remarked in passing that all 
over the Christian parts of the world monasteries 
existed, even in those early times, in very large 
numbers. We know the names, and the dates or 
periods of foundation, of no less than 1481 founded 
before the year 814, in various parts of the world; 
and the actual number was very much larger than 
that, from what we know of the facts, especially 
in the East. In the time of Henry VIII, besides 
the monasteries which had been suppressed by 
Wolsey, Fisher, and others, as also the large 
number of alien priories suppressed at an earlier 
date, and besides all the ecclesiastical foundations 
called hospitals and colleges, more than 600 
monasteries remained in this land to be suppressed. 

There being, then, no lands left to endow 
bishoprics, there was, in Bede's opinion, only one 
remedy; that was, the summoning of a Greater 
Council, at which an edict should be issued, by 
pontifical and royal consent, fixing upon some 
great monastery for a new episcopal seat. To 
conciliate the abbat and monks, the election of the 
bishop-abbat should be left to them. If it should 
prove necessary to provide more property still for 
the bishop, Bede pointed out that there were 
many establishments calling themselves monas- 
teries which were not worthy of the name. He 
would like to see some of these transferred by 
sy nodical authority for the further maintenance of 



60 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

the newly-created see, so that money which now 
went in luxury, vanity, and intemperance in meat 
and drink, might be used to further the cause of 
chastity, temperance, and piety. Here in Bristol, 
with Gloucester close at hand, we need no reminder 
of the closeness of the parallel between Bede's 
advice in 735 to King Ceolwulf and the actual 
course taken in 1535 by King Henry, and carried 
to completion by him in 1540-2, in the foundation 
of six new bishoprics on the spoils of as many 
great monasteries. Nor need it be pointed out 
that Bede's proposal to suppress small and ill- 
conditioned monasteries was a forecast of the 
original proposal of Henry VIII. 

Bede then proceeds to speak with extreme 
severity of false monasteries. It appears that 
men bribed kings to make them grants of lands — 
professedly for monasteries — in hereditary pos- 
session, and paid moneys to bishops, abbats, and 
secular authorities, to ratify the grants by their 
signatures; and then they made them the dwell- 
ings of licentiousness and excess of all kinds. 
The men's wives set up corresponding establish- 
ments. Bede urged the annulment of all grants 
thus misused : again we seem to hear a note pro- 
phetic of eight hundred years later. To so great 
a pitch had this gone, that there w r ere no lands 
left for grants to discharged soldiers, sons of nobles, 
and others. Thus it came to pass that such men 
either went beyond sea and abandoned their own 
country, for which they ought to fight, or else 
they lived as they could at home, not able to 
marry, and living unseemly lives. If this was 
allowed to go on, the land would be unable to 



61 



defend itself against the inroads of the barbarians. 
Bede's prophecy to that effect came crushingly 
true in Alcuin's time, not fifty years after it was 
written. And here again we have a remarkable 
forecast of Henry Villus avowed purpose in the 
suppression of monasteries, that he must have 
means to defend his land against invasion. Thus 
the three arguments of Henry VIII, namely, that 
lands and money were needed for more soldiers 
and sailors, that lands and money were needed for 
more bishoprics, and that many of the religious 
houses did not deserve that name, were carefully 
set out by one whom we may call a High- Church 
ecclesiastic, eight hundred years before Henry. 

On two of the points mentioned by Bede in 
connexion with monasteries, it may be well to say 
a little more by way of illustration. The two 
points are, the hereditary descent of monasteries, 
and the principle on which the election of the 
abbat should proceed. To take the second first, — 
Bede is very precise on this point. He says that 
when a monastery is to be taken as the seat of 
a bishop, licence should be given to the monks to 
elect one of themselves to fill the double office of 
abbat and' bishop, and to rule the monastery in the 
one character and the adjacent diocese in the other. 
We should have thought it would have been better 
to leave them free to elect some prominent church- 
man from the outside, than to limit their choice to 
one of themselves. And the exception for which 
arrangement was made points in the same direction 
of limitation. If they have not the right man in 
their own monastery, at least they must choose one 
from their own family, or order, to preside over 



62 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



them, in accordance with the decrees of the Canons. 
This strictness was traditional in Northumbria. 
The great founder of monastic institutions in the 
Northern Church, Benedict Biscop, who founded 
Monk Wearmouth in 674 and Jarrow in 685, was 
very decided about it. He would not have an 
abbat brought in from another monastery. The 
duty of the brethren, he said, when speaking to his 
monks on his own imminent decease, was, in 
accordance with the rule of Abbat Benedict the 
Great, and in accordance with the statutes of 
their own monastery of Wearmouth — which he 
had himself drawn up after consideration of the 
various rules on the Continent from the statutes 
of the seventeen monasteries which he liked best 
of all that he had seen — to inquire carefully who 
of themselves was best fitted for the post, and, 
after due election, have him confirmed as abbat by 
the benediction of the bishop. There is a great 
deal to be said in favour of this course, and there 
is a great deal to be said for more freedom of 
election. The case which comes nearest to it in 
our English life of to-day is that of the election of 
the Master of a College in one of the two Uni- 
versities. In Cambridge the election — in two 
cases the appointment — is in every case open, in 
the sense that it is not confined to the Fellows of 
the College, and in very recent times there have 
been several cases of the election of a prominent 
man from another College, to the great advantage 
of the College thus electing. 

The other point is of much wider importance, 
namely, the hereditary descent of monasteries and 
of their headship. Our Northumbrian abbat 



BEDE S LETTER TO ECGBERT. 63 

Benedict was very decided here also. The brethren 
must not elect his successor on account of his birth. 
There must be no claim of next of kin. He was 
specially anxious that his own brother after the 
flesh should not be elected to succeed him. He 
would rather his monastery became a wilderness 
than have this man as his successor, for they all 
knew that he did not walk in the way of truth. 
Benedict evidently feared that a practice of hered- 
itary succession to ecclesiastical office might spring 
up. No doubt he had seen at least the beginning 
of this in foreign parts. It was no visionary fear, 
for in times rather later we have examples of 
ecclesiastical benefices, and even bishopries, going 
from father to son, and that in days of supposed 
celibacy. "We have plenty of examples of monas- 
teries descending from mother to daughter later 
on in England ; and in Bede's own time he men- 
tions without adverse remark that the Abbess of 
Wetadun (Watton, in East Yorkshire) persuaded 
Bishop John of Hexham to cure of an illness her 
daughter, whom she proposed to make abbess in 
her stead. Alcuin himself, as we have seen, 1 tells 
us quite as a matter of ordinary occurrence, not 
calling for any remark, that he himself succeeded 
hereditarily to the first monastery which he ruled, 
situated on Spurn Point, the southern promontory 
of Yorkshire. We cannot doubt that the evils 
naturally arising, in some cases at least, from 
hereditary succession to spiritual positions, had 
much to do with the intemperate suppression of 
the secular clergy and the enforcement of clerical 

1 See p. 5. 



64 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

celibacy. In considering the question as it con- 
cerned the times of Alcuin, we must bear in mind 
that we are dealing with times very long before 
the development of the idea of feudal succession. 

It is interesting to note that the earliest manu- 
scripts of the Rule of St. Benedict which are 
known to exist do not definitely lay down the 
precise rule that the person elected to an abbacy 
must be a member of the abbey or at least of the 
same order. The Rule was first printed in 1659 
by a monk of Monte Cassino ; and this print was 
carefully collated throughout with a manuscript of 
the thirteenth century at Fort Augustus for the 
edition published by Burns and Oates in 1886. 
Chapter 64 is as follows, taking the translation 
annexed to the Latin in that edition, though it 
does not in all cases give quite the force of the 
original. 

a In the appointing 1 of an abbot, let this principle 
always be observed, that he be made abbot whom 
all the brethren with one consent in the fear of 
God, or even a small j)art of the community with 
more wholesome counsel, shall elect. Let him who 
is to be appointed be chosen for the merit of his 
life and the wisdom of his doctrine, even though 
he should be the last of the community. But if 
all the brethren with one accord (which God forbid) 
should elect a man willing to acquiesce in their 
evil habits, and these in some way come to the 
knowledge of the bishop to whose diocese that 
place belongs, or of the abbots or neighbouring 
Christians, let them not suffer the consent of these 
wicked men to prevail, but appoint 2 a worthy 

1 In ordinaiione. 2 Constituant. 



BEDE S LETTER TO ECGBERT. 65 

steward over the house of God, knowing that for 
this they shall receive a good reward, if they do 
it with a pure intention and for the love of God, 
as, on the other hand, they will sin if they 
neglect it.' - ' 

We hear a good deal in our early history of 
kings and great men renouncing the world and 
entering the cloister. Bede shows us the darker 
side of this practice. Ever since king Aldfrith 
died, he says, some thirty years before, there has 
not been one chief minister of state who has not 
provided himself while in office with a so-called 
monastery of this false kind, and his wife with 
another. The layman then is tonsured, and be- 
comes not a monk but an abbat, knowing nothing 
of the monastic rule. And the bishops, who ought 
to restrain them by regular discipline, or else expel 
them from Holy Church, are eager to confirm the 
unrighteous decrees for the sake of the fees they 
receive for their signatures. Against this poison 
of covetousness Bede inveighs bitterly ; and then 
he declares that if he were to treat in like manner 
of drunkenness, gluttony, sensuality, and like evils, 
his letter would extend to an immense length. 

It may be well to mention here another religious 
practice which had two sides to it, the practice of 
going on pilgrimage. Anglo-Saxon men and 
women had a passion for visiting the tombs of the 
two princes of the Apostles, Peter, whose connexion 
with Rome is so shadowy up to the time of his 
death there, and Paul, their own Apostle, the 
teacher of the Gentiles, whose connexion with 
Rome is so solid a fact in the New Testament and 
in Church history. Bede tells us that in his times 



66 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

many of the English, noble and ignoble, laymen 
and clerics, men and women, did this. As a result 
of the relaxed discipline of mixed travel, a com- 
plaint came to England, soon after, that the pro- 
miscuous journeyings on pilgrimage led to much 
immorality, so that there was scarcely a town on 
the route in which there were not English women 
leading immoral lives. 

There is one striking passage in Bede's unique 
letter which shows us how great were the demands 
of the early Church upon the religious observances 
of the lay people ; while it shows with equal clear- 
ness the inadequacy of the response made by the 
English of the time. The passage will complete 
our knowledge of the state of religion among our 
Anglian forefathers towards the end of Bede's life. 
It refers to the bishop's work among the people of 
the world, outside the monastic institutions. The 
bishop must furnish them with competent teachers, 
who shall show them how to fortify themselves 
and all they have against the continual plots of 
unclean spirits, by the frequent use of the sign of 
the Cross, and by frequent joining in Holy Com- 
munion. " It is salutary/' he says to Ecgbert, "for 
all classes of Christians to participate daily in the 
Body and Blood of the Lord, as you well know is 
done by the Church of Christ throughout Italy, 
Gaul, Africa, Greece, and the whole of the East. 
This religious exercise, this devoted sanctification, 
has, through the neglect of the teachers, been so 
long abandoned by almost all the lay persons of 
the province of Northumbria, that even the more 
religious among them only communicate at Christ- 
mas, Epiphany, and Easter. And yet," he con- 



BEDE S LETTER TO ECGBERT. 67 

tinues, "there are innumerable persons, innocent 
and of most chaste conversation, boys and girls, 
young men and virgins, old men and old women, 
who without any controversy could communicate 
on every Lord's Day, and indeed on the birthdays 
of the holy apostles and martyrs, as you have seen 
done in the holy Roman and Apostolic Church/'' 
The Church History of early times has a great 
deal of practical teaching for the church people of 
to-day. 

If the life of religious people in the monasteries 
and in the world was thus tainted and slack, we 
can imagine what the ordinary secular life was 
likely to be. There was terrible force in Bede's 
suggestion that a nation so rotten could never 
withstand a hostile attack of any importance. 
Archbishop Ecgbert certainly did all that he could 
to bring things into order ; and he wisely deter- 
mined that the very best thing he could do to pull 
things round was to get hold of the youth of the 
nation, and train them with the utmost care in 
the way that they should go. This leads us on 
to the rise or revival of the Cathedral School of 
York. 



f 2 



CHAPTER IV 

The school of York. — Alcuin's poem on the Bishops and 
Saints of the Church of York. — The destruction of the 
Britons by the Saxons. —Description of Wilfrith IT, Ecgbert, 
Albert, of York. — Balther and Eata. — Church building in 
York.— The Library of York. 

It is usual to reckon the year 735 as the begin- 
ning of the great School o£ York, and Archbishop 
— or rather, as he then was, Bishop — Ecgbert as 
its originator. But it seems clear that we must 
carry its beginnings further back, and count as its 
originator a man who filled a much larger place in 
the world than even Ecgbert, archbishop as he be- 
came, and brother of the king as he was. "When 
Wilfrith, the first Englishman to appeal to Rome, 
was put into the see of York by Theodore of Can- 
terbury in 669, his chaplain and biographer, Stephen 
Eddi, tells of four principal works which, between 
that year and 678, his chief accomplished. The 
first was the restoration of the Cathedral Church of 
York, which had fallen into decay during the time 
when Lindisfarne was the seat of the Bishop of 
Northumbria. The second was the building of a 
noble church at Ripon for the people of the king- 
dom of Elmete, which Edwin, the first Christian 
king of Northumbria, had conquered from the 
Romano-Britons ; corresponding to the West Riding 
of Yorkshire and parts of Lancashire, a portion of 
the great British kingdom of Rheged, at the court 



THE SCHOOL OF YORK. 69 

of which the bard Taliessin had sung. The fourth 
was the building of a still more noble church at 
Hexham, to be the ecclesiastical centre of the 
northern part of Northumbrian replacing Lindis- 
farne in that character. And the third in order 
was the establishment of a School, no doubt at 
York, as that was his episcopal seat, and he him- 
self was the chief teacher. The world credits 
"William of Wickham with the invention of the 
idea of a public school in the modern sense of the 
word ; but seven hundred 1 years before him Wilf rith 
had grasped the idea and put it into practice at 
York. This is what his chaplain tells us. The 
secular chiefs, the noblemen, sent their sons to him 
to be so taught that when the time of choice came 
they would be found fit to serve God in the min- 
istry, if that was their choice, or to serve the king 
in arms if they preferred that career. We must 
certainly reckon the year 676, or thereabouts, as 
the date of foundation of the school at York, Wil- 
frith as its founder, and its principle that of the 
modern public school, which is supposed to give an 
education so liberal that whatever career its alum- 
nus prefers he will be found fitted for it. The first 
scholars of the school of York entered, some of 
them, the ministry, as learned clerks ; others, the 
army, as fit to be soldiers. It was still so when 
I went to that school sixty-four years ago. The 
school is older than Winchester by seven hundred 
years, and older than Eton by seven hundred and 
sixty-five. 2 Bede's strong appeal to Ecgbert led 

1 He was Bishop of Winchester a. d. 13G7 to 1398; Wilfrith 
was Bishop of York a. d. 669 to 678. 

2 Eton was founded, in a very small way, in 14-10. 



70 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



to the revival of the school after the natural decay 
from which good institutions suffer in times of | 
ecclesiastical and civil disorder, and we date the 
continuous life of the school from him. It was an 
interesting coincidence, that men saw in the year 
735 the revival of the school and the birth of its 
most famous pupil, assistant master, and head 
master. We may now turn to that man, whose | 
early lot was cast in a state of society, lay and 
clerical, such as that described in scathing terms 
by Bede ; and who was the first-fruits of the 
remedy which Bede had suggested. As a link 
between Bede and Alcuin we may have in mind 
a pretty little story about Bede which we find in 
a letter of Alcuin's some fifty or sixty years after 
Bede's death. 

Ep. 274 Alcuin is writing to the monks of Wearmouth. 

before a.d. jj e i e \\ s them how well he remembers what he 
saw at Wearmouth long years ago, and how much 
he was pleased with everything he saw. He 
encourages them to continue in the right way by 
reminding them of the virtues of their founders. 
" It is certain/'' he writes, " that your founders very 
often visit the place of your dwelling. They re- 
joice with all whom the}^ find keeping their statutes 
and living right lives ; and they cease not to in- 
tercede for such with the pious judge. Nor is it 
doubtful that visitations of angels frequent holy 
places; for it is reported that our master and 
your patron the blessed Bede said, ( I know that 
angels visit the canonical hours and the congrega- 
tions of the brethren. What if they should 
not find me among the brethren ? Would they 
not have to say, Where is Bede? Why does 



ALCUIN S POEM ON YORK. 71 

he not come with the brethren to the appointed 
prayers ? ' ,J 

To us in England, and especially to those of us 
who are North-countrymen, nothing that Alcuin 
wrote has a higher interest than his poem in Latin 
hexameters on the Bishops and Saints of the 
Church of York. By the Church of York Alcuin 
evidently meant the Church of Northumbria, 
although his account of the prelates dwells chiefly 
on the archbishops of his time. Considering his 
long sojourn in France, it was fitting that the 
manuscript of this famous poem should be dis- 
covered at a monastery near Reims, the monastery 
of St. Theodoric, or Thierry according to the later 
spelling. A great part of the poem is in the main 
a versification of Bede's prose history of the con- 
version of the North to Christianity, and an adapta- 
tion of Bede's metrical life of St. Cuthbert. On 
this account the French transcriber from the 
original omitted about 1100 of the 1657 lines 
of which the poem consists, and only about 550 
lines were originally printed by Mabillon in the 
Acta Sanctorum. When our own Gale was pre- 
paring to publish it, he got the missing verses 
both from the St. Theodoric MS. and also from 
a MS. at Reims itself. Both manuscripts dis- 
appeared long ago, probably in the devastations 
of the French Revolution 1 . 

The poem describes the importance of York in 
the time of the Roman occupation of Britain, the 
residence, as Alcuin tells us, of the dukes of 

1 As to the treatment of ancient ecclesiastical MSS. in 
one part of France at the time of the Revolution, see pages 
219, &c. 



72 ALCTJIN OF YORK. 

Britain, and of sovereigns of Rome. York was, 
in fact, the imperial city ; it shared with Treves 
the honour of being the only imperial cities north 
of the Alps. He speaks eloquently of its beautiful 
surroundings, its flowery fields, its noble edifices, 
its fertility, its charm as a home. This part of 
the poem inclines the reader to settle in favour of 
York the uncertainty as to the place of Alcuin's 
birth. One graphic touch, and the use of a special 
Latin name for the river Ouse which flows through 
the middle of the city, goes to the heart of those 
who in their youth have fished in that river — 

Hanc piscosa suis undis interluit Usa. 

He goes on to speak of the persistent inroads of 
the Picts after the withdrawal of the Roman troops. 
Inasmuch as the sixth legion was quartered at 
York, and all of the other three legions in Britain 
were withdrawn before the sixth, it may be claimed 
that York was the last place effectively occupied 
by the Roman troops. This indeed is in itself 
probable, since York was in the best position for 
checking the attempts of the Picts to reach the 
central and southern parts of Britain. He describes 
how the leaders of the Britons sent large bribes to 
a warlike race, to bring them over to protect the 
land, a race, he says, called from their hardness 
Saxi, as though Saxons meant stones. 1 The even- 
tual conquest of the Britons by the Saxons 
evidently had Alcuin's full sympathy. The Britons 
were lazy ; worse than that, they were wicked ; 

1 It is now maintained that ' Saxon ' is formed from saxa, 
stones, but for a different reason, being taken as describing 
' armed men ' in the stone age. 



ALCUIN'S POEM ON YORK. 73 

for their sins they were rightly driven out, and 
a better race entered into possession of their cities. 
We would give a great deal to have had from 
Alcuin a few words of tradition about some details 
of the occupation of York by the Angles, and of 
the fate of the British inhabitants. Alcuin's words 
would suggest that their fate was a cruel one, 
but we do not know anything of it from any source 
whatsoever. One of his remarks strikes us as 
curious, considering that the Britons were Christians 
and their conquerors were pagan : the expulsion, 
he says, was the work of God, that a race might 
enter into possession who should keep the precepts 
of the Lord. Clearly Alcuin held a brief for his 
ancestors of some five generations before his birth. 
He writes also in a rather lordly way of the 
kingdom of Kent, as though Northumbria was 
the really important province in the time of King 
Edwin, as indeed it unquestionably was. Edwin 
was the most prominent personage in England, the 
Bretwalda, at the time of the conversion of North- 
umbria. All that Alcuin says of Edwin's young 
wife Ethelburga, and of the kingdom of Kent 
whence she came, is this : <c He took from the 
southern parts a faithful wife, of excellent dis- 
position, of illustrious origin, endowed with all the 
virtues of the holy faith/' We shall have, at 
a later stage, to remark upon the silence with 
which Wessex also was treated by Alcuin. 

It is quite true that the facts of the greater part 
of the poem are taken from Bede. But it is of 
much interest to note the selection which Alcuin 
made. Of the kings, he writes of Edwin, Oswald, 
Oswy, Ecgfrith, and Aldfrith, omitting mention of 



74 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



the sub-kings, several of whom were connected 
with constitutional difficulties. Of the bishops, he 
writes of Paulinus, Wilfrith, Cuthbert, Bosa, and 
John, mentioning Aidan only incidentally, but with 
the epithet "most holy''''. He avoids all contro- 
versial topics in writing of Wilfrith. There is just 
one word of reference to Wilfrith's many disturb- 
ances, in connexion with the only mention Alcuin 
makes here of Rome : Wilfrith, he says, was 
journeying to Rome, co?npulsu$?hemg driven to go 
there. It is worthy of remark that of the hundred 
and sixty-eight lines which Alcuin gives to his 
account of Wilfrith, he devotes nine to Wilfrith's 
vision, in which the name of the Blessed Virgin 
played so large a part. It was Wilfrith's chaplain, 
Eddi, who recorded this, not Bede, who is very 
reticent about Wilfrith. Michael appeared to Wil- 
frith at a crisis in a serious illness, and announced 
that he was sent by the Almighty to inform him 
that he would recover. The message went on to 
explain that this was due to the merits and prayers 
of the holy mother Mary, who from the celestial 
throne had heard with open ears the groans, the 
tears (sic) 1 , and the vows of the companions of 
Wilfrith, and had begged for him life and health. 
Stephen Eddi gives a highly characteristic ending 
to the message, which Alcuin omits. iC Remember," 
the archangel said, " that in honour of St. Peter 
and St. Andrew thou hast built churches ; but to 
the holy Mary, ever Virgin, who intercedes for 
thee, thou hast reared none. This thou must 
amend, by dedicating a church to her honour." 

1 It is so, also, in Eddi's prose account, "pro lachrymis 
ad aures Dei pervenientibus." 



BISHOPS AND ARCHBISHOPS OF YORK. 75 

The church which he had built for St. Peter was 
at Ripon, that for St. Andrew was at Hexham ; 
we have still in each case the confessio, or crypt 
for relics, which he built under those churches. In 
obedience to the vision, Wilfrith now built a church 
of St. Mary by the side of the church of St. Andrew 
at Hexham. This present generation has seen 
a noble restoration and completion of the abbey 
church of Hexham. 1 

It is scarcely necessary to remark upon this 
grouping together of churches dedicated to various 
saints. At Malmesbury, under St. Aldhelm, there 
were six churches on the hill in one group, St. 
Andrew, St. Laurence,, St. Mary, St. Michael, 
St. Peter and St. Paul, and the little Irish basilica 
of Maildulf. 

Alcuin mentions also the missionary zeal of the 
Northumbrian church, beginning with the early 
Ecgbert, who on the expulsion of Wilfrith left 
Ripon, and lived for the rest of his life in Ireland 
as a trainer of missionaries. Besides him, Alcuin 
names as English missionaries Wibert, Wilbrord, 
the two Hewalds, Suidbert, and Wira. 

So far Alcuin copied Bede and Eddi. In the last 
442 lines of his poem he gives us information which 
we do not find elsewhere, dealing in some detail 
with Bishop "Wilfrith II and Archbishops Ecgbert, 
Albert, and Eanbald, of York. Wilfrith II resigned 
the bishopric of York in the year of Alcuin' s birth, 
after holding it for fourteen years. A delightful 
account of him had been handed down to Alcuin's 
time. He was to all acceptable, venerable, honour- 
able, lovable. He took great pains in improving 
1 See also p. 137. 



76 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

and beautifying the ornaments of his church, cover- 
ing altar and crosses with silver plates, gilded. 
Other churches in the city he beautified in like 
manner. He was zealous in multiplying the con- 
gregations ; following the precepts of the Lord ; 
careful in doctrine; bright in example. Liberal 
with hand and mouth, he fed the minds of the 
studious and the bodies of the needy. In the 
end he retired and spent his latest years in con- 
templation. 

Of Ecgbert, the succeeding bishop, Alcuin writes 
in terms of the highest praise. He was evidently 
more of a ruler than the second Wilfrith had been, 
and could be very severe with evil men. He had 
a love for beautiful things, and added much to the 
treasures of the church, special mention being made 
of silk hangings with foreign patterns woven in. 
It was to him that Bede wrote the striking letter 
which we have analysed above. He was of the 
royal house of Northumbria, and one of his brothers 
succeeded to the throne while Ecgbert was arch- 
bishop. The bishop had taken Bede's advice, had 
sought and obtained from Rome the pallium, as 
the sign of metropolitical position. Curiously 
enough, Alcuin makes no reference to this, the 
most important ecclesiastical step of the time, 
another silence on his part which may have hid 
feelings he did not wish to express. He does 
mention the pall, but only as a matter of course, 
in comparing the two brothers, the prelate and 
the king; the one, he says, bore on his shoulder 
the palls sent by the Apostolic, the other on his 
head the diadems of his ancestors. He draws 
a charming picture of the two brothers working 



THE PALL FOR YORK. 77 

together for the country's good, each in his own 
sphere, 

The times were happy then for this our race, 

When king and prelate in lawful concord wielded 

The one the church's laws, the other the nation's affairs. 

We have seen how slight a reference Alcuin 
makes to the fact of the pall from Rome. He 
appears to have held a very moderate view of its 
importance to the end of his life. His letter to 
the Pope, Leo III, in the year 797, conveying 
a request that the pall might be granted to the 
newly-consecrated Archbishop of York, Eanbald II, 
is an important document. After referring to his 
letter of the previous year, congratulating Leo on 
his accession, he proceeds as follows, curiously 
enough not mentioning by name the archbishop 
or his city or diocese. He is writing from his 
home in France. 

(C And now as regards these messengers — who Ep. 82. 
have come from my own fatherland and my own 
city, to solicit the dignity of the sacred pall, in 
canonical manner and in accordance with the 
apostolic precept of the blessed Gregory who 
brought us to Christ — I humbly pray your pious 
excellency that you receive benignantly the re- 
quests of ecclesiastical necessity. For in those 
parts the authority of the sacred pall is very 
necessary, to keep down the perversity of wicked 
men and to preserve the authority of holy church/'' 

That is a remarkably limited statement of the 
need for the pall, when we remember the tre- 
mendous claims made for it in later times. And 
it is the more remarkable because Alcuin is 
evidently making the most persuasive appeal he 



78 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

could construct ; he would certainly state the case 
in its strongest terms when addressing the one 
man with whom it finally rested to say yes or no. 
He seems to say clearly that to have the pall was 
honum et utile for the archbishop, for the purposes 
which he names ; he says nothing, because ap- 
parently he knows nothing, of its affecting, one 
way or another, the archbishop's plenary right, in 
virtue of his election and consecration, to con- 
secrate bishops, ordain priests, and rule his province 
and his diocese. 

Alcuin digresses from the series of archbishops 
to deal with the saints of the Church of York, of 
times near to and coinciding with his own. Of 
the former, he naturally takes Bede, and he takes 
no other. To Bede he gives only thirty-one lines, 
but he does not stint his praise. Six of the thirty- 
one lines are devoted to Bede's abbat, Ceolfrith, who 
took from Wearmouth as a present to the Pope 
the famous Codex Amiatinus, now at Florence, 1 
and died and was buried at Langres. From 
Alcuin's poem we learn that Ceolfrith's body was 
eventually brought back to Northumbria, and this 
enables us to accept William of Malruesbury's 
statement that King Edmund, on an expedition to 
the north, obtained the relics of Ceolfrith among 
many others, and had them safely buried at 
Glastonbury. 

Of the saints who lived on to the time of 
Alcuin's own manhood he takes two, and we 
are rather surprised at his selection. The one is 
Balther, the occupant of the Bass Rock, known 
later as Baldred of the Bass ; the other is the 
1 See my Lessons from Early English Church History, pp. 74-, 75. 



SAINTS OP YORK. 79 

anchorite Eata. Both, indeed, were anchorites, 
the one at Tyningham and on the Bass, the other 
at Cric, which is said to be Crayke in the East 
Riding of Yorkshire. Baldred died in 756, and 
Eata in 767. At Thornhill, in the West Riding 
of Yorkshire, there is a sepulchral monument, one 
of three with inscriptions in early Anglian runes, 
in memory of one Eata, who is described as Inne, 
which some have guessed to mean a hermit. 1 On 
the strength of this guess they have claimed that 
Thornhill was the place of burial of Alcuin's Eata. 
To Balther Alcuin gives more than twice as many 
lines as to Bede; to us this seems a remarkably 
disproportionate treatment. There is a consider- 
able amount of uncertainty about Balther, and 
Alcuin's lines leave the uncertainty without solu- 
tion. The events which he connects with the 
anchorite Balther, as one of the saints of the 
Northumbrian Church, are really connected with 
an earlier Balther, of the time of St. Kentigern, 
a saint of the ancient British Church of Cumbria. 
The death of this Balther is placed in 608; and 
in any case he was before the first formation of 
the Christian Church among the Northumbrian 
Angles. Simeon of Durham puts the death of 
Balther in 756, and this fits in well with Alcuin's 
statements; but we may most probably suppose 
that there was an earlier Balther and a later, and 
that the legendary events of the life of the earlier 
have been transferred to the life of the later. 
Alcuin certainly understood that his Balther was 
Balther of the Bass. 

1 Our word "inn" means a place enclosed, or a place 
comprising an enclosure. 



80 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

It is when Alcuin comes to Archbishop Albert 
that he really lets himself go. Ecgbert had in 
fact established the eminence of the great School 
of York, and had himself acted as its chief governor 
and its religious teacher. But Alcuin does not 
even refer to that in his account of Ecgbert. The 
praise of the school goes all to the credit of 
Ecgbert'' s cousin, his successor in the mastership 
and eventually in the archbishopric, Albert. Eight 
lines of laudatory epithets Alcuin bestows upon 
Albert, before proceeding to detail ; his laudation 
fitly culminates in what all ages have regarded as 
high praise, non ore loquax sed strenuus acta, — not 
a great talker, but a strenuous doer. 

In 766 Albert became archbishop. Like his 
immediate predecessors, he did much to beautify 
churches in the city. In this work Alcuin was 
one of his two right-hand men; and yet each 
detail which Alcuin gives is puzzling. He tells 
us that at the spot where the great warrior Edwin 
the king received the water of baptism, the pre- 
late constructed a grand altar, which he covered 
with silver, precious stones, and gold, and dedi- 
cated under the name of St. Paul, the teacher of 
the world, whom the learned archbishop specially 
loved. There is a difficulty here. While it is cer- 
tain that the church of stone of larger dimensions 
which Edwin and Paulinus began, to include the 
wooden 'oratory of St. Peter the place of Edwin's 
baptism, was the church which Oswald completed 
and the first Wilfrith restored, as the Cathedral 
Church of York, there was no altar of St. Paul 
in the Cathedral Church in the middle ages. We 
should naturally have supposed that an altar so 



CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF YORK. 81 

splendid as that which Albert constructed, at a 
spot so uniquely remarkable in the Christian his- 
tory of Northumbrian would have been sedulously 
retained throughout all changes. The explanation 
may well be that not the size only but the level 
of the surface of the site has been greatly in- 
creased in the course of 1200 years. The herring- 
bone work of the walls of the early Anglian 
Church of York was found deep down below the 
surface when excavations were made after the fire 
of 1829, and at a later period in connexion with 
the hydraulic apparatus for the organ. Probably 
the altar of St. Paul, and the place of baptism, 
were down at that level, and were buried in the 
ruins of one fire after another, many feet below 
the present surface of the Minster Yard. My old 
friend Canon Raine, who edited the three volumes 
of the Historians of the Church of York, writing of 
the present crypt in his introduction to the first 
volume, 1 says, "In another peculiar place is the 
actual site, if I mistake not, of the font in which 
Edwin became a Christian." Canon Raine was 
secretive in connexion with antiquarian discoveries, 
and from inquiries which I have made it is to be 
feared that the secret of this site died with him. 
All we can say is, that where that site was, there 
was this splendid altar 2 of St. Paul, mundi doctoris. 
A more doubtful point is raised by Aleum/s 
description of the building of a new and mar- 
vellous basilica, begun, completed, and consecrated, 
by Albert. Two of his pupils, Eanbald and Alcuin, 
were his ministers in the building, which was con- 

1 p. xxiii. 2 See also p. 141. 

G 



82 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

secrated only ten days before his death. It was 
very lofty, supported on solid columns, with curved 
arches ; the roofs and windows were fine ; it was 
surrounded by many porches, porticoes, which were 
in fact side chapels ; it contained many chambers 
under various roofs, in which were thirty altars 
with sundry kinds of ornament, Alcuin describes 
this immediately after describing' the construction 
of the altar of St. Paul in what must have been 
the old Cathedral Church ; but he does not say 
that the new church was on the old site, or that 
it replaced the Cathedral Church. Still, a church 
of that magnitude can only have been the chief 
church of the city. Simeon of Durham throws 
light upon the point by stating as the reason for 
building this new basilica, that the monasterium 
of York — that is, the Minster, as it has always 
been called 1 — was burned 2 on Monday, May 23, 
741 ; and the Saxon Chronicle has the entry 3 , " This 

1 " Monasterium " is used in the middle ages for a parisli 
church in the country. "Minster" has always been a 
special Yorkshire word, " York Minster," " Kipon Minster," 
" Beverley Minster." The unique inscription at the side of 
the sun-dial at Kirkdale Church, dated as in the days of 
Tostig the Earl, sets forth that " Orm Gamal-suna bohte 
Sanctus Gregorius minster". 

2 The writer of this cannot refrain from mentioning a 
curious coincidence of dates and experience between himself 
and his schoolfellow and head master Alcuin. York Minster 
was burned on May 23, 741, when Alcuin was six years old. 
The cathedral school being within the precincts, Alcuin 
would have to be removed to a place of safety. York 
Minster was burned on May 20, 1840, curiously near to 
being the eleven-hundredth anniversary of the burning on 
May 23, 741, and the present writer, then aged six, was 
carried from his bed in the minster precincts to a place of 
safety in Castlegate. 

3 An.DCC.XLi, Her forbarn Eoferwic. This entry is found 



CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF YORK. 83 

year York was burned/' The balance of argument 
on this disputed point is that Albert did really 
build a new Cathedral Church in place of one that 
was burned while Alcuin was a boy. The in- 
vestigations which have taken place show that in 
Anglo-Saxon times a basilica of really important 
dimensions was in existence, much larger than 
Edwin's little oratory or Oswald's stone building, 
and all points to its being the "marvellous basilica - " 
which Eanbald and Alcuin built by order of Albert. 
Alcuin makes several statements about church- 
building in York. In lines 195-198, he tells us 
that King Edwin caused a small building to be 
hurriedly erected, in which he and his could receive 
the sacred water of baptism. We should naturally 
suppose that it was by the side of water. In lines 
219-222 he tells us that Paulinus built ample 
churches in his cities. Among them he names that 
of York, supported on solid columns; it remains, 
he says, noble and beautiful, on the spot where 
Edwin was laved in the sacred wave. In lines 
1 221-1228 he tells us first that Wilfrith II greatly 
adorned "the church 3 \ evidently meaning his 
cathedral church, and then that he adorned with 
great gifts other churches in the city of York. In 
lines 1487-1505 he tells us that Albert took great 
care in the ornamentation of churches, and especially 
that at the spot of Edwin's baptism he made a grand 

in the two MSS. of the Chronicle known as Cotton. Tib. B. 1 
and Bodl. Laud. 636. These two MSS. have special informa- 
tion about Northumbrian affairs. They differ in the spelling 
of proper names, but in this case they take the same spelling 
of the Anglian name of York, which appears in five different 
forms in the Chronicle. 

G 2 



84 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

altar, which he covered with silver and gems and 
gold, and dedicated it under the name of Saint Paul 
whom he greatly loved. He made also, still it 
would seem at the same spot, another altar, covered 
with pure silver and precious stones, and dedicated 
it to the Martyrs and the Cross. As we have seen, 
there was no altar dedicated to St. Paul in the 
mediaeval Minster of York; but there was not 
an altar only but a small church — which remained 
as a parish church till very recent years — dedicated 
to Saint Crux. The parish of St. Crux is now 
absorbed in All Saints. Lastly, in lines 1506-1519 
he describes the building of the great new basilica 
which Eanbald and himself built under the orders 
of Archbishop Albert. The conclusion appears to 
be that the new basilica — which probably became 
the cathedral church — did not stand on the site of 
Paulinus's church, but was erected close by that 
specially sacred spot; and that both Paulinus's 
stone oratory, beautified by Wilfrith II, with its 
added altars to St. Paul and St. Crux, and also the 
new and great basilica of Albert, are now absorbed 
in the vast area of the Minster of York. 

Eanbald succeeded Albert in the archbishopric, 
and Alcuin succeeded Albert in the mastership of 
the School of Y^ork and in the ownership of the 
great library which for three generations had been 
got together at York. Alcuin tells us that it con- 
tained all Latin literature, all that Greece had 
handed on to the Romans, all that the Hebrew 
people had received from on high, all that Africa 
with clear-flowing light had given. Passing from 
the general to the particular, Alcuin names the 
authors whose works the library of York possessed. 



THE LIBRARY OF YORK. 85 

What we would give for even five or six of those 
priceless manuscripts ! Of the Christian Fathers, 
he records a rather mixed list. They had Jerome, 
Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, Orosius, 
Gregory the Great, Pope Leo, Basil, Fulgentius, 
Cassiodorus, and John Chrysostom. They had the 
works of the learned men of the English Church, 
our own Aldhelm of Malmesbury, and Bede ; with 
them he names Victorinus and Boethius, and the 
old historians, Pompeius and Pliny, the acute Aris- 
totle and the great rhetorician Tally. They had the 
poets, too, Sedulius, Juvencus, Alcimus \ Clemens, 
Prosper, Paulinus, Arator, Fortunatus, Lactantius. 
They had also Virgil, Statius, and Lucan. They 
were rich in grammarians: Probus, Focas, Donatus, 
Priscian, Servius, Euticius, Pompeius, Comminianus. 
You will find, he says, in the library very many 
more masters, famous in study, art, and language, 
who have written very many volumes, but whose 
names it would be too long to recite in a poem. 
It may perhaps be a fair guess that he had used 
up all the names which he could conveniently get 
into dactyls and spondees for hexameter verse. 

Two years after handing over to Alcuin the 
possession of this great library, and to Eanbald 
the archbishopric itself, Albert died. We may 
here remind ourselves of outstanding facts and 
dates. Alcuin, born in 735, had as a young man 
held the office of teacher in the School of York for 
some years. In 766 he had been promoted to 

1 Before Froben this was read Alcuinus, clearly an im- 
possible reading in a list drawn up by Alcuin himself, and 
at a time when his chief effort of versification could not be 
in the library. 



86 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

a position which so far as teaching was concerned 
was practically that of Head Master. In 778 he 
became in the fullest sense the master of the 
school. In 780 he inherited the great collection of 
books which had been brought together by succes- 
sive archbishops. In 782 he was called away to 
become the teacher of the School of the Palace of 
Karl, and director of the studies of the empire, 
still continuing to hold the office of master in 
name. In 792 he left England for the last time, 
and his official connexion with the school of York 
came to an end. He gave twenty years of his 
older life to the service of the Franks, and died 
in 804. 



CHAPTER V 

The affairs of Mercia. — Tripartite division of England. — 
The creation of a third archbishopric, at Lichfield. — Offa 
and Karl. — Alcuin's letter to Athelhard of Canterbury ; to 
Beornwin of Mercia. — Karl's letter to Offa, a commercial 
treaty. — Alcuin's letter to Offa. — Offa's death. 

Although Alcuin was a Northumbrian, and his 
interests were naturally with that kingdom, he 
was at one time of his life more intimately con- 
cerned with the affairs of Mercia. It seems, on 
the whole, best to deal first with that part, as it 
can be to a certain extent isolated from his corre- 
spondence with Northumbria, and from his life and 
work among the Franks. The special events in 
Mercian history with which he was concerned are 
in themselves of great interest. They are — (1) the 
personal and official dealings between Karl and 
the Mercian king, and (2) the creation and the 
extinction of a third metropolitical province in 
England, the archbishopric of Lichfield. 

We have to accustom ourselves to the fact that 
the Heptarchy, that is, the division of England 
into seven independent kingdoms with seven inde- 
pendent kings, no longer existed in Alcuin's time. 
The land was divided into three kingdoms, North- 
umbria, Mercia, and Wessex. The rivers Thames 
and Humber were, roughly speaking, the lines 
dividing the whole land into three. Kent, to which 
we probably attach too much importance by reason 



ALCUIN OF YORK. 



of its being the first Christian kingdom, and of its 
having in its Archbishop the chief ecclesiastic of 
the whole land, was a conquered kingdom, the 
property at one time of Wessex, at another of 
Mercia. The South Saxons, our Sussex, had kings 
and dukes fitfully, and the territory was included 
in Wessex. The East Saxons, our Essex, had 
kings nominally, but belonged usually to Mercia. 
East Anglia was in a somewhat similar position, 
but held out for independence with much pertinacity 
and success till long after Alcuin's time. The year 
828, a quarter of a century after Alcuin's death, saw 
the final defeat of Mercia by Ecgbert of Wessex, 
who had spent fifteen years in exile at the Court 
of Charlemagne in Alcuin's time, from 787 to 802, 
when he succeeded to the vacant throne of Wessex 
by a very remote claim, as great-great-grand- 
nephew of the famous king Ina. No doubt he 
learned in those strenuous years, under the tutelage 
of Karl, the lessons of war which brought him into 
dominance here, another link between Karl and 
England which passes almost entirely unrecognized. 
The year 829 saw the peaceful submission of the 
great men of Northumbria to Ecgbert, at Dore, 
in Derbyshire, and their recognition of him as their 
overlord. The mistake of supposing that Ecgbert 
thus became sole king of England as a single king- 
dom is now exploded ; but he was, roughly speaking, 
master of the whole, and as time went on the petty 
kings and kinglets disappeared. The time which 
this process occupied was not short. The thirty-first 
king of Northumbria was reigning in Ecgbert's 
time, when his thegns made submission to Ecgbert ; 
but fifteen more kings reigned in Northumbria, till 



THE MERCIAN ARCHBISHOPRIC. 89 

Eadred expelled the last of them in 954. In like 
manner, we have the coins of some kings of East 
Anglia, and mention of other kings, as late as 905. 

That is a digression into times a hundred and 
a hundred and fifty years after Alcuin. In his time, 
as has been said, the Heptarchy had for practical 
purposes been consolidated into three main king- 
doms, Wessex, Mercia, and Northumbria. 

This tri-partite arrangement of the seven king- 
doms led to one of the most curious episodes of 
Alcuin's time, and, indeed, of English history. 

Offa, the ambitious king of Mercia, who reigned 
from 757 to 796, saw that there were two arch- 
bishoprics in England, one of which, Canterbury, 
was centred in a conquered kingdom ; while the 
other, York, had only been created some twenty 
years before he began to reign. Bede had advised 
that the bishopric of York should be raised to an 
archbishopric, with Northumbria as its province, 
and on application made to the Pope the thing had 
been done. Each of the two archbishops, as Offa 
saw, received special recognition from the Pope in 
the grant of the pallium ; a costly luxury, no doubt, 
but a luxury of honour and dignity, worth a good 
deal of money — which it certainly cost. There was 
no Emperor of the West in those days, some four- 
teen years before the elevation of Karl to an imperial 
throne; and the Pope was, by the mystery of his 
ecclesiastical position, and in the glamour of pagan 
Rome, the greatest personage in the then chaotic 
world of Western Europe. 

Quite apart from the possession of the pallium, 
the constitutional position of an English arch- 
bishop was very great. In our days it is some- 



90 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



times asked about a wealthy man, how much is he 
worth. In Anglo-Saxon times that question had 
a direct meaning and a direct answer. Men of 
all the higher grades at least had their money 
value, a very considerable value, which any one 
who put an end to any of them must pay. While 
the luxury of killing a bishop was as costly as 
killing an ealdorman, that is, an earl, an arch- 
bishop was as dear as a prince of the blood. 
The bishop or earl was worth 8000 thrimsas, 
the thrimsa being probably threepence, say five 
shillings of our money, or £2000 in all ; that was 
what had to be paid for the luxury of killing 
a bishop; the archbishop or royal prince rose to 
15000 thrimsas, nearly twice as much, say £3750 
of our money ; it does not sound quite enough to 
our modern ears. The king was put at £7500. 
For drawing a weapon in the presence of a bishop 
or an ealdorman, the fine was 100 shillings, say 
£100 of our money ; in the case of an archbishop 
it was 150 shillings, half as much again. In the 
laws of Ina, for violence done to the dwelling and 
seat of jurisdiction of a bishop, the fine was 80 
shillings, in the case of an archbishop 120, the 
same as in the case of the king. This was not 
the only point in which the archbishop was on the 
same level as the king ; his mere word, without 
oath, was — as the king's — incontrovertible. A 
bishop's oath was equivalent to the oaths of 240 
ordinary tax payers. In the case of the archbishop 
of Canterbury at the times of which we are speak- 
ing, there was added the fact that the royal family 
of Kent had retired to Reculver and left the arch- 
bishop supreme in the capital city, as the bishops 



THE MERCIAN ARCHBISHOPRIC. 91 

of Rome had been left in Rome by the departure 
of the emperors to Constantinople. In Archbishop 
Jaenbert' s time the royal family of Kent practically 
came to an end, as a regnant family, at the battle 
of Otford, near Sevenoaks, in the year 774, when 
Mercia conquered Kent. Archbishop Jaenbert of 
Canterbury is said to have proposed that he should 
become the temporal sovereign of Kent, as well as 
its ecclesiastical ruler, after the then recent fashion 
of the bishop of Rome, and to have offered to do 
homage to Karl, king of the Franks, for the king- 
dom. If that was so, we can well understand the 
determination of the conquering and powerful 
Offa to abate the archbishop's position and his 
pride. 

Kent was but an outside annex of the Mercian 
kingdom proper. It had been subject to other 
kingdoms; it might be so subject again. The 
Lichfield bishopric was the real ecclesiastical centre 
of OftVs kingdom, and he determined to have an 
archbishop of Lichfield, and to have him duly 
recognized by the Pope. A visit of two legates of 
the Pope, accompanied by a representative of the 
King of the Franks, in the year 785, gave the 
opportunity. 1 Offa had already punished Jaenbert 
by taking away all manors belonging to the See 
of Canterbury in Mercian territories ; and he now 
proposed that the jurisdiction of Canterbury should 
be limited to Kent, Sussex, and Wessex, and that 
all the land of England between the Thames and 
the Humber should become a third metropolitical 
province, under the archiepiscopal rule of the 

1 See Appendix B, p. 810. 



92 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

bishop of Lichfield. The synod at which this 
proposal was made is described in the Saxon 
Chronicle as geflitfullic, quarrelsome-like ; but in 
the end, OfiVs proposal was accepted. Pope Adrian 
gave his sanction and the pall. William of 
Malmesbury, with his usual skill and his wide 
experience, gives the explanation of this papal 
acquiescence in so violent a revolution in ecclesias- 
tical matters : Offa, he says, obtained the papal 
licence by the gift of endless money, pecunia mfi?dta, 
to the Apostolic See ; which See, he adds, never 
fails one who gives money. That was the judge- 
ment of a historian after 250 years' additional 
experience of the secret of Roman sanction. The 
Pope of the time, it should be said, was a man of 
much distinction, Adrian or Hadrian I, a friend 
of Offa and of Karl. We shall have a good deal 
to say about the grants of Karl, and of Pepin his 
father, to the papacy, in another lecture. 

There is a letter extant 1 from Pope Adrian I to 
Karl, written before the creation of the Mercian 
archbishopric, in which the Pope says he has heard 
from Karl of a report that Offa had proposed to 
persuade him to eject Adrian from the Papacy, 
and put in his place some one of the Frankish 
race. The Pope professes to feel that this is 
absolutely false ; and yet he says so much about it 
that it is quite clear he was anxious. Karl had 
told him that Offa had not made any such proposal 
to him, and had not had any thought in his mind 
except that he hoped Adrian would continue to 
govern the Church all through his time. The 

1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 440 



OFFA AND KARL. 93 

Pope adds that neither had he until that time 
heard of anything of the kind; and he does not 
believe that even a pagan would think of such 
a thing. Having said all this, in Latin much 
more cumbrous than Alcuin's charmingly clear 
style, he enters upon a long declaration of his 
personal courage and confidence whatever happened. 
" If God be with us, who shall be against us/'' 

We must, I think, take it that there had been 
some hitch in negotiations between Offia and 
Adrian, and that Offa, with the outspoken vigour 
of a Mercian Angle, had in fact gone far beyond 
Henry VHP's greatest threats, and had declared to 
his counsellors that if Adrian was not more pliable, 
he and Karl would make some one Pope who would 
have first regard to the wishes of the Angles and 
the Franks. 

Now it was Aleuin who had brought together 
Karl and Offa in the first instance, and had brought 
about their alliance. And on a later occasion when 
they quarrelled he made them friends again. We 
do not know what active part, if any, Aleuin took 
in the matter decided at the quarrelsome-like synod. 
But we have plenty of evidence that he highly 
approved of the reversal of Hadrian's act by his 
successor Leo III, with the assent, and indeed on 
the request, of OnVs successor Kenulf. He corre- 
sponded with Offa in a very friendly manner, as 
indeed OfrVs general conduct well deserved. Here 
is a letter from him, in response to a request from 
the king that he would send him a teacher. 
"Always desirous faithfully to do what you wish, Ep. 43. 
I have sent to you this my best loved pupil, as you 787-796. 
have requested. I pray you have him in honour 



res. 



94 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

until if God will I come to you. Do not let him 
wander about idle, do not let him take to drink. 
Provide him with pupils, and let your preceptors 
see that he teaches diligently. I know that he 
has learned well. I hope he will do well, for the 
success of my pupils is my reward with God. 

"I am greatly pleased that you are so intent 
upon encouraging study, that the light of wisdom, 
in many places now extinct, may shine in your 
kingdom. You are the glory of Britain, the 
trumpet of defiance, the sword against hostile 
forces, the shield against the enemies." 

It is only fair to Offa to say that this was not 
mere flattery. It is clear that in the eyes of Karl 
and Alcuin, Offa was the one leading man in the 
whole of England, the most powerful Englishman 
of his time, and of all the kings and princes the 
most worthy. 

To Athelhard, the archbishop of Canterbury, 1 
who succeeded Jaenbert, Lichfield still being the 
chief archbishopric, Alcuin wrote a remarkable 
letter, considering the humiliation of the arch- 
bishopric : — 

u Be a preacher ; not a flatterer. It is better to 
fear God than man, to please God than to fawn 
upon men. What is a flatterer but a fawning 
enemy ? He destroys both, — himself and his 
hearer. 

"You have received the pastoral rod and the 
staff of fraternal consolation; the one to rule, the 
other to console ; that those who mourn may find 
in you consolation, those who resist may feel cor- 

1 a. d. 790-805. 



ALCUIN S LETTER TO ATHELHARP. 95 

rection. The judge's power is to kill ; thine, to 
make alive. 

u Remember that the bishop 1 is the messenger 
of God most high, and the holy law is to be 
sought at his mouth, as we read in the prophet 
Malachi. 2 A watchman 3 is set at the highest 
place; whence the name episcopus, he being the 
chief watchman/ who ought by prudent counsel 
to foresee for the whole army of Christ what must 
be avoided and what must be done. These, that 
is the bishops 5 , are the lights of the holy church 
of God, the leaders of the flock of Christ. It is 
their duty actively to raise the standard of the 
holy cross in the front rank, and to stand intrepid 
against every attack of the hostile force. These 
are they who have received the talents, our King 
the God Christ having gone with triumph of glory 
to His Father's abode ; and when He comes again 

1 "Sacerdos." It appears clear that Aleuin is using the 
word as equivalent to il episcopus", as it frequently was. 

2 Mai. ii. 7. 3 " Speculator." 

4 " Super-speculator." Isidore explains in his Etymologies 
that bishops are called "episcopi" by the Greeks and 
" speculatores " by the Latins, because they are set on high 
in the church. 

5 " Sacerdotes." That Aleuin is speaking of bishops, not 
of priests in general, is clear from his verses at the end of 
the letter, where he repeats his phrases "terrae sal ", 
"lumina mundi", and adds "Bis sexsigna poli", the twelve 
stars of the sky, namely the bishops of the Southern 
Province. These were, not counting Athelhard himself, 
Higbert of Lichfield, Kenwalch or Eadbald of London, 
Kinbert of Winchester, Unwona of Leicester, Ceolwulf of 
Lindsey, Denefrith of Sherborne, Aelhun of Dunwich, 
Alheard of Elmham, Heathred of Worcester, Ceolmund of 
Hereford, Wiothun of Selsey, Weremund of Eochester. 



96 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

in the great day of judgement they shall render an 
account. . . . 

" Admonish most diligently your fellow-bishops x 
to labour instantly in the word of life, that they 
may appear before the judge eternal, glorious with 
multifold gain. Be of one mind in piety, constant 
in equity. Let no terror of human dignity 
separate you, no blandishments of flattery divide 
you ; but join together in unity in firm ranks of 
the fortress of God. Thus will your concord strike 
terror into those who seek to speak against the 
Truth ; as Solomon says, 2 ' When brother is helped 
by brother, the city is secure/ 

" Ye are the light of all Britain, the salt of the 
earth, a city set on a hill, a candle high on 
a candlestick. . . . 

" Our ancestors, though pagans, first as pagans 
possessed this land by their valour in war, by the 
dispensation of God. How great, then, is the 
reproach, if we, Christians, lose what they, pagans, 
acquired. I say this on account of the blow which 
has lately fallen upon a part of our island, a land 
which has for nearly 350 years been inhabited by 
our forefathers. It is read in the book of Gildas 3 , 
the wisest of the Britons, that those same Britons, 
because of the rapine and avarice of the princes, 
the iniquity and injustice of the judges, the sloth 
and laxity of the bishops, and the wicked habits of 

1 " Consacerdotes." 

2 Prov. xviii. 19. The Vulgate and the Septuagint versions 
give the force of the passage in Alcuin's sense. The 
Authorised Version gives, "A brother offended is harder to 
be won than a strong city." The Revised Version agrees 
exactly with the A.V. 

3 Gildus, in Alcuin. 



ALCUIN S LETTER TO ATHELHARD. 97 

the people, lost their fatherland. Let us take care 
that those vices do not become the custom with us 
in these times of oars. ... Do you, who along 
with the Apostles have received from Christ the 
key of the kingdom of heaven, the power of 
binding and loosing, open with assiduous prayer 
the gates of heaven to the people of God. Be 
not silent, lest the sins of the people be imputed 
to you : for of you will God require the souls 
which you have received to rule. Let your reward 
be multiplied by the salvation of those in your 
charge. Comfort those who are cast down, 
strengthen the humble, bring back to the way of 
truth those who wander, instruct the ignorant, 
exhort the learned, and confirm all by the good 
examples of your own life. Chastise with the 
pastoral rod those who are contumacious and resist 
the truth; support the others with the staff of 
consolation. And, if you are unanimous, who will 
be able to stand against you ? " 

Alcuin could be exceedingly outspoken in his 
letters, as we have seen. But he could also be 
very cautious, even — perhaps we should say es- 
pecially — in a matter on which he felt deeply. In 
a letter to the Irish teacher Colcu he remarks 
that he did not know what he might have to do 
next. The reason was that something of a dis- E P- !■* 
sension, diabolically inflamed, had arisen between A,D * °' 
Karl and Offa, the Mercian king, and had gone so 
far that each forbade entry to the other's mer- 
chants. ' ' Some tell me/ ; he says, ' ( that I am to 
be sent to those parts to make peace/'' 

The reason for the quarrel was a curious one. 
Karl had proposed that his son Charles should . 
H 



98 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

marry one of Offa's daughters. Off a had made 
a supplementary proposal that his son Ecgfrith 
should marry Karl's daughter Bertha. This is said 
to have been considered presumptuous by Karl, and 
he showed his annoyance by breaking off the 
friendly relations which had existed between 
them. 

It would appear that Alarm's attitude was sus- 
pected by the Mercian king to be unfavourable to 
the English view of the quarrel, and the presbyter 
Beornwin, to whom Alcuin had written a letter 
not known to have survived, was set to write to 
him a fishing letter, in which it would seem that 
he suggested unfriendliness on Alcuin's part. 
Alcuin's reply is a non-committal document. 

Ep. 15 " I have received the sweet letters of your 

ad. 790. ] ove # u > 

" Would that I were worthy to preach peace, not 
to sow discord ; to carry the standard of Christ, 
not the arms of the devil. I should never have 
written to you if I had been unwilling to be at 
peace with you and to remain firm as we began in 
Christ. 

" Of a truth I have never been unfaithful to 
King Off a, or to the Anglian nation. As to the 
utmost of my power I shall faithfully keep the 
friends whom God has given me in France, so 
I shall those whom I have left in my own country. 



u As time or opportunity affords, my very dear 
brother, urge ever the will of God upon all persons ; 
on the king, persuasively; on the bishops, with 
due honour; on the chief men, with confidence; 



karl's letter to offa. 99 

on all, with truth. It is ours to sow ; it is God's 
to fructify. 

w And let no suspicion of any dissension between 
us remain. Let us not be of those of whom it is 
said : I am not come to send peace but a sword. 
Let us be of those to whom it is said : My peace 
I give unto you, My peace I leave with you. 

" I have written a very short letter, for a few 
words to a wise man suffice.''' 

The dissension was rather one-sided, for it appears 
that Offa continued to write friendly letters to 
Karl. In the end, Karl replied in a more than 
friendly letter, which is on many accounts well 
worth reproducing entire. It is the earliest extant 
commercial treaty with an English kingdom. 
The date is 796, four years before he became 
emperor. 

" Charles, by the grace of God King of the Ep. 57 
Franks and Lombards and Patricius of the A - D - 796 - 
Romans, to his dearest brother the venerated Offa, 
King of the Mercians, wishes present prosperity 
and eternal beatitude in Christ. To keep with in- 
most affection of heart the concord of holy love 
and the laws of friendship and peace federated in 
unity, among royal dignities and the great person- 
ages of the world, is wont to be profitable to many. 
And if we are bidden by our Lord's precept to 
loose the tangles of enmity, how much more ought 
we to be careful to bind the chains of love. We 
therefore, my most loved brother, mindful of the 
ancient pact between us, have addressed to your 
reverence these letters, that our treaty, fixed firm 
in the root of faith, may flourish in the fruit of 
love. We have read over the epistles of your 
h2 



100 ALCUIN OF YOEK. 

brotherliness, which at various times have been 
brought to us by the hands of your messengers, and 
we desire to answer adequately the several sugges- 
tions of your authority." It is clear that there 
were a good many of OftVs letters unanswered. 

u First, we give thanks to Almighty God for the 
sincerity of catholic faith which we find laudably 
expressed in your pages ; recognizing that you are 
not only very strong in protection of your father- 
land, but also most devoted in defence of the holy 
faith. 

" With regard to pilgrims, who for the love of 
God and the health of their souls desire to visit 
the thresholds of the blessed Apostles, as has been 
customary " — here again we see the reason of the 
reputation of Rome — " we give leave for them to 
go on their way peaceably without any disturbance, 
carrying with them such things as are necessary. 
But we have ascertained that traders seeking gain, 
not serving religion, have fraudulently joined them- 
selves to bands of pilgrims. If such are found 
among the pilgrims, they must pay at the proper 
places the fixed toll : the rest will go in peace, free 
from toll. 

" You have written to us also about merchants. 
AVe will and command that they have protection 
and patronage in our realm, lawfully, according to 
the ancient custom of trading. And if in any 
place they suffer from unjust oppression, they may 
appeal to us or our judges, and we will see that 
pious justice is done. And so for our merchants ; 
if they suffer any injustice in your realm, let them 
appeal to the judgement of your equity. Thus no 
disturbance can arise among our merchants/' 



KARL S LETTER TO OFFA. 101 

Karl evidently felt that the next point was the 
most difficult of all to handle successfully. He 
had given shelter and countenance to Mercians who 
had fled from Offa, and sought protection at his 
court. Ecgbert, who afterwards conquered Mercia, 
was among the exiles from Wessex. 

lt With regard to the presbyter Odberht, who on 
his return from Rome desires to live abroad for the 
love of God, not coming to us to accuse you, we 
make known to your love that we have sent him to 
Rome along with other exiles who in fear of death 
have fled to the wings of our protection. We have 
done this in order that in the presence of the lord 
apostolic and of your illustrious archbishop — in 
accordance, as your notes make known to us, with 
their vow — their cause may be heard and judged, 
so that equitable judgement may effect what pious 
intercession could not do. What could be safer for 
us than that the investigation of apostolic authority 
should discriminate in a case where the opinion of 
others differs ? " 

This is a typical example of the use made of 
a pope when monarchs disagreed. 

i{ With regard to the black stones which your 
reverence earnestly solicited to have sent to you, 
let a messenger come and point out what kind they 
are that your mind desires. Wherever they may 
be found, we will gladly order them to be given, 
and their conveyance to be aided." 1 

1 It may be supposed that Offa was engaged in building an 
abbey church at St. Albans. William of Malmesbury says of 
the church built by Offa in honour of St Alban (Gesta Regum, 
i. 4): "The relics of St. Alban, at that time buried in 
obscurity, he had reverently taken up and placed in a shrine 



102 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Then comes in very skilfully a complaint that 
the Mercians have been exporting to France cloaks 
of inadequate length. 

" But, as you have intimated your desire as to 
the length of the stones, our people make demand 
about the length of cloaks, that you will order 
them to be made to the pattern of those which in 
former times used to come to us. 

" Further, we make known to your love that we 
have forwarded to each of the episcopal sees in 
your kingdom, and that of king iEthelred [of 
Northumbria, again no mention of Wessex], a gift 
from our collection of dalmatics and palls, in alms 
for the lord apostolic Adrian 1 } our father, your 
loving friend, praying you to order intercession for 
his soul, not in doubt that his blessed soul is at 
rest, but to show faith and love towards a friend 
to us most dear. So the blessed Augustine has 
taught that pious intercessions of the church should 
be made for all, asserting that to intercede for a 
good man is profitable to him that intercedes/' 
That is a remarkble way of putting it. 

" From the treasure of secular things which the 
Lord Jesus of gratuitous pity has granted to us, 
we have sent something to each of the metropolitan 
cities. To thy love, for joy and giving of thanks 
to Almighty God, we have sent a Hunnish belt and 



decorated to the fullest extent of royal munificence with 
gold and jewels; a church of most beautiful workmanship 
was there erected, and a society of monks assembled." The 
black stones may have been wanted for pavements. 

1 Pope Hadrian I. He died December 27, 795, having 
held the Papacy for twenty-three years, with great dis- 
tinction, at a most important time in its history. 



ALCUINS LETTER TO OFFA. 103 

sword and two silk palls, that everywhere among* 
a Christian people the divine clemency may be 
preached, and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ 
may be for ever glorified/' 

The Hunnish belt and sword and silk robes 
were part of the great spoil which Karl took in 
the year 795 when he conquered the Huns, 
destroyed their army, and put their prince to 
flight. The spoil included fifteen wagons loaded 
with gold and silver, and palls of white silk, each 
wagon drawn by four oxen. Karl divided the 
plunder between the churches and the poor. 1 

The gifts of Karl to the king and bishops of 
Northumbria were withdrawn under sad conditions, 
to which we must return in the next lecture. This 
is what Alcuin wrote to Offa, immediately after 
Karl's letter was written : — 

ct Your reverend love should know that the lord Ep. 58. 
King Charles has often spoken to me of you in A - D - 796 - 
a loving and trusting manner. You have in him 
an entirely most faithful friend. Thus he sent 
messengers to Rome for the judgement of the lord 
apostolic and Ethelhard the archbishop. To your 
love he sent gifts worthy. To the several episcopal 
sees he sent gifts in alms for himself and the lord 
apostolic, that you might order prayers to be 
offered for them. Do you act faithfully, as you 
are wont to do with all your friends. 

" In like manner he sent gifts to King iEthelred 
and his episcopal sees. But, alas for the grief ! 
when the gifts and the letters were in the hands of 
the messengers, the sad news came from those who 

1 Simeon of Durham, under the year 795. 



104 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

had returned from Scotia 1 by way of you, that the 
nation had revolted and the king [iEthelred] was 
killed. King Charles withdrew his gifts, so greatly 
was he enraged against the nation — ' that perfidious 
and perverse nation/ as he called them, ' murderers 
of their own lords/ holding them to be worse than 
pagans. Indeed, if I had not interceded for them, 
whatever good thing he could have taken away 
from them, whatever bad thing he could have 
contrived for them, he would have done it. 

" I was prepared to come to you with the king's 
gifts, and to go back to my fatherland/'' This was 
from three to four years later than his latest visit 
to our shores. u But it seemed to me better, for the 
sake of peace for my nation, to remain abroad. 
I did not know what I could do among them, 
where no one is safe, and no wholesome counsel is 
of any avail. Look at the very holiest places 
devastated by pagans, the altars fouled by per- 
juries, the monasteries violated by adulteries, the 
earth stained with the blood of lords and princes. 
What else could I do but groan with the prophet, 2 
f Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with 
iniquity, a seed of evildoers; they have forsaken 
the Lord, and blasphemed the holy Saviour of the 
world in their wickedness.' And if it be true, as 
we read in the letter of your dignity, that the 
iniquity had its rise among the eldermen, where is 
safety and fidelity to be hoped for if the turbid 
torrent of unfaithfulness flowed forth from the 



1 This would naturally mean Ireland at that time, but it 
is far from clear that Ireland is meant. 

2 Isa. i. 4. 



ALCUIN S LETTER TO OFFA. 105 

very place where the purest fount of truth and 
faith was wont to spring ? 

(< But do thou, O most wise ruler of the people 
of God, most diligently bring thy nation away 
from perverse habits, and make them learned in 
the precepts of God, lest by reason of the sins of 
the people the land which God has given us be 
destroyed. Be to the Church of Christ as a father, 
to the priests of God as a brother, to all the people 
pious and fair ; in conversation and in word 
moderate and peaceable ; in the praise of God 
always devout ; that the divine clemency may keep 
thee in long prosperity, and may of the grace of 
its goodness deign to exalt, dilate, and crown to all 
eternity, with the benefaction of perpetual pity, thy 
kingdom — nay, all the English. 

c< I pray you direct the several Churches of your 
reverence to intercede for me. Into my unworthy 
hands the government of the Church of St. Martin 
has come. I have taken it not voluntarily but under 
pressure, by the advice of many."" 

Offa died in the year in which this letter was 
written, and his death brought great changes in 
Mercia. Excellent as Offa had in most ways been, 
we have evidence that the Mercian people were by 
no means worthy of the fine old Mercian king. 
In reading the letter which contains this evidence, 
we shall see that Offa had a murderous side of his 
character. In those rude days, chaos could not be 
dealt with under its worse conditions by men who 
could not at a crisis strike with unmitigated 
severity. 



CHAPTER VI 

Grant to Malmesbury by Ecgfrith of Mercia. — Alcuins 
letters to Mercia. — Kenulf and Leo III restore Canterbury 
to its primatial position. — Gifts of money to the Pope. — 
Alcuin's letters to the restored archbishop. — His letter to 
Karl on the archbishop's proposed visit. Letters of Karl to 
Offa (on a question of discipline) and Athelhard (in favour 
of Mercian exiles). 

Before proceeding to examine Alcuin's letter to 
a Mercian nobleman on the death of Offa and his 
son Ecgfrith, it should be remarked that we of 
the diocese of Bristol must nob allow the mention 
of this poor young king Ecgfrith to pass without 
our acknowledgement for a deed of justice done. 
When Offa defeated the West Saxon king at 
Bensington, he took possession of a good deal of 
the border land, including two tracts of land 
which King Cadwalla of Wessex had given to 
Malmesbury, namely Tetbury in Gloucestershire 
and Purton in Wilts. William of Malmesbury 
naturally reports the iniquity of Offa in thus 
pillaging the abbey which was the home of 
William's life and studies. Offa gave Tetbury 
to the Bishop of Worcester. Purton was the 
subject of a deed by Ecgfrith during his reign 
of a few months. The deed has remarkable 
interest for us in this diocese, in that it is doubly 
dated ; first as in the seven hundred and ninety- 
sixth year from the Incarnation, and next, with 
a very interesting recognition of our own Aldhelm, 
due to the fact that the theft had been from 



ALCUIN S LETTER TO MERCIA. 107 

Aldhelm's own Malmesbury, "in the eighty- 
seventh year from the passing of father Aldhelm.'''' 
The deed restores land of thirty-five families at 
Piritune, on the east side of Braden Wood, to the 
abbat and brethren of Malmesbury, for the repose 
of the sonl of his father Offa who had taken it 
from them, and in order that the memory of 
Ecgfrith might always be preserved in their 
prayers. As a sort of unimportant afterthought 
he adds that the abbat and brethren have given 
him two thousand shillings of pure silver, probably 
as many pounds of our money. The deed was 
signed by Athelhard of Canterbury, not by Lich- 
field. The reason no doubt is that Tetbury and 
Purton are south of the Thames, and so outside 
the Province of Lichfield and within the diminished 
Province of Canterbury. 

When the death of Offa's son, the youthful 
Ecgfrith, king of Mercia, occurred in this same 
year 796 in which year his father Offa had died, 1 
and a distant cousin Kenulf succeeded, Alcuin, as 
has been said, wrote a very serious letter to one 
of the chief officers of Mercia. 

ff These are times of tribulation everywhere in Ep. 79 
the land ; faith is failing ; truth is dumb ; malice A - D * 797, 
increases; and arrogance adds to your miseries. 
Men are not content to follow in the steps of our 
early fathers, in dress, or food, or honest ways. 
Some most foolish man thinks out something 
unsuited to human nature, and hateful to God; 
and straightway almost the whole of the people 
set themselves busily to follow this above all. 

1 Offa died July 26, 796, and Ecgfrith died in the middle 
of December in the same year, after a reign of 141 days. 



108 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

"That most noble youth [Ecgfrith] is dead; 
not, as I think, because of his own sins alone, 
but also because the vengeance of his father's 
bloodshedding has reached the son. For you 
know best of all how much blood the father shed 
that the kingdom might be safe for the son. It 
proved to be the destruction, not the confirmation, 
of his reign. 

" Admonish the more diligently your new king 
[Kenulf], yes, and the king of Northumbria [Ard- 
wulf] too, that they keep in touch with the divine 
piety, avoiding adulteries ; that they do not 
neglect their early wives 1 for the sake of adulteries 
with women of the nobility, but under the fear of 
God have their own wives, or by consent live in 
chastity. I fear that Ardwulf, the king of my 
part of the country, will soon 2 have to lose the 
kingdom because of the insult which he has offered 
to God in sending away his own wife, and, it is 
said ; living openly with a concubine. It seems 
that the prosperity of the English is nearly at an 
end; unless indeed by assiduous prayers, and 
honest ways, and humble life, and chaste conver- 
sation, and keeping the faith, they win from God 
to keep the land which God of His free gift gave 
to our forefathers." 

1 In each of these two cases the new king was, in this 
year 796, most unexpectedly raised to the throne from a 
comparatively poor position, in which he had married 
a wife of his own position. Alcuin fears that they will be 
tempted to cast off the early wife and take some lady more 
fitted for a throne. 

2 This prophecy was not fulfilled. It was not till nine 
years after the date of this letter that Eardwulf was ex- 
pelled from the kingdom. 



ALCUIN S LETTER TO KENULF. 109 

With this letter we may fitly compare the letter 
which Alcuin wrote to the king himself, Kenulf, 
who had thus unexpectedly succeeded. It begins 
in a complimentary manner, but it is a very faith- 
ful letter. It carefully recognizes the inconsistencies 
of Offa's life, inconsistencies which appear to have 
characterized the best rulers in those times, very 
rude and violent times, when one occasion and 
another seemed to demand ruthless treatment. 

" To the most excellent Coenulf, King of the Ep. 80 
Mercians, the humble levite Albinus wishes health. AT> - 797, 

"Your goodness, moderation, and nobility of 
conduct, are a great joy to me. They are befitting 
to the royal dignity, which excels all others in 
honour, and ought to excel also in perfectness of 
conduct, in fairness of justice, in holiness of piety. 
The royal clemency should go beyond that of or- 
dinary men, as we read in ancient histories, and in 
holy Scripture where it is said 1 — Mercy and truth 
exalt a throne; and in the Psalms it is said 2 of 
Almighty God — All the paths of the Lord are 
mercy and truth. The more a man shines forth in 
works of truth and mercy, the more has he in him 
of the image of the divine. 

" Have always in mind Him who raised thee 
from a poor position and set thee as a ruler over 
the princes of His people. Know that thou art 
rather a shepherd, and a dispenser of the gifts of 
God, than a lord and an exactor. 

" Have always in mind the very best features of 
the reign of your most noble predecessor Offa ; his 
modest conversation ; his zeal in correcting the life 

1 Prov. xx. 28. 

2 Ps. xxiv. 10, Vulgate; xxv. 10, A.V. ; xxv. 10, Psalter. 



110 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

of a Christian people. Whatever good arrange- 
ments he made in the kingdom to thee by God 
given, let your devotion most diligently carry out ; 
but if in any respect he acted with greed, or 
cruelty, know that this you must by all means 
avoid. For it is not without cause that that most 
noble son of his survived his father for so short 
a time. The deserts of a father are often visited 
on a son. 

w Have prudent counsellors who fear God; love 
justice ; seek peace with friends ; show faith and 
holiness in pious manner of life. 

" For the English race is vexed with tribulations 
by reason of its many sins. The goodness of kings, 
the preaching of the priests of Christ, the religious 
life of the people, can raise it to the height of its 
ancient honour ; so that a blessed progeny of our 
fathers may deserve to possess perpetual happiness, 
stability of the kingdom, and fortitude against any 
foe; that the Church of Christ, as ordained by 
holy fathers, may grow and prosper. Always have 
in honour, most illustrious ruler, the priests of 
Christ ; for the more reverently you are disposed to 
the servants of Christ, and the preachers of the 
word of God, the more will Christ, the King pious 
and true, exalt and confirm your honour, on the 
intercession of His saints/'' 

When Kenulf, this distant cousin of Ecgfrith, 
came to the throne, he looked into the matter of 
the archbishopric of Lichfield, and he took a view 
adverse to OfiVs action. He wrote to Pope 
Leo III a letter, 1 in which he put the points very 

1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 521, from William of Malmesbury, 
G. R. i. 4. 



END OF THE MERCIAN ARCHBISHOPRIC. Ill 

clearly. His bishops and learned men had told 
him that the division of the Province of Canterbury 
into two provinces was contrary to the canons and 
apostolical statutes of the most blessed Gregory, who 
had ordered that there should be twelve bishops 
under the archbishop of the southern province, 
seated at London. On the death of Augustine of 
Canterbury, it had seemed good to all the wise men 
of the race, the Witangemote, that not London but 
Canterbury should be the seat of the Primacy, 
where Augustine's body lay. King Offa, by 
reason of his enmity with the venerable archbishop 
Jaenbert and the people of Kent, set to work to 
divide the province into two. The most pious 
Adrian, at the request of the said king, had done 
what no one before had presumed to do, had raised 
the Mercian prelate to the dignity of the pallium. 
Kenulf did not blame either of them ; but he hoped 
that the Pope would look into the matter and make 
a benign and just response. He had sent an 
embassy on the part of himself and the bishops in 
the previous year by Wada the Abbat ; but Wada, 
after accepting the charge, had indolently — nay 
foolishly — withdrawn. He now sent by the hands 
of a presbyter, Birine, and two of his officers, 
Fildas and Cheolberth, a small present, out of his 
love for the Pope, namely, 120 mancuses, 1 some forty 
to fifty pounds, say not far off £1000 of our time. 
Pope Leo addressed his reply to king Kenulf, 
his most loved bishops, and most glorious dukes. 
It was a difficult letter to write, for Kenulf had 
been very frank about the uncanonical action of 

1 A mancus was more than one-third of a pound, but that 
conveys no real idea to the modern mind of its actual value. 



112 ALCUIN OP YORK. 

Hadrian the Pope. Leo answered this part of 
Kenulf's letter by stating that his predecessor had 
acted as he had done (i) because Offa had declared 
it to be the universal wish, the petition of all, that 
the archbishopric should be divided into two; 
(2) because of the great extension of the Mercian 
kingdom ; (3) for very many causes and advantages. 
He, Leo, now authorized the departure from Pope 
Gregory's order in so far as this, that he recognized 
Canterbury, not London, as the chief seat of archi- 
episcopal authority. He declared that Canterbury 
was the primatial see, and must continue and be 
viewed as such. I cannot find in his letter a 
definite declaration that he annuls the act of his 
predecessor, but that is the effect of the letter ; nor 
does he declare that Lichfield is no longer an 
archbishopric. Kenulf, as we have seen, had sent 
him, out of his affection for him, a gift of 120 
mancuses. But he reminded the king that Offa 
had bound his successors to maintain the gift to 
the Pope, in each year, of as many mancuses as 
there are days in the year, namely, he says, 
365, as alms to the poor, and as an endowment 
for keeping in order the lamps [in the churches]. 
This is much more likely than the shadowy gifts 
of Ina, king of Wessex, to have been the origin 
of Peter's Pence, a sum of money collected in 
England, at first fitfully and eventually year by 
year, and sent out to the Pope. The money was 
collected in the parishes of each diocese down 
to the time of the Reformation. It is a regular 
item in the churchwardens' accounts of the earlier 
years of Henry VIII. Only a fixed amount of the 
whole sum collected was sent to the Pope, the 



PAYMENTS TO ROME. 113 

balance being used for repairs in the several dioceses. 
"We have a list prepared by a representative of 
a late mediaeval Pope giving £190 6s. Sd. as 
the amount received by him for the year, corre- 
sponding roughly to a normal 300 marks a year. 

OftVs money for the Pope went of course from 
Mercia. When Wessex became predominant, 
Ethelwulf, the son of Ecgbert and father of 
Alfred, made large gifts to Rome, and left by will 
300 mancuses, 100 in honour of St. Peter, specially 
for rilling with oil all the lamps of his apostolic 
church on Easter Eve and at cock crow, 100 in 
honour of St. Paul, in the same terms and for the 
same purpose in respect of the basilica of St. Paul, 
and 100 for the Pope himself. King Alfred also 
sent presents to Home. From 883 to 890 there 
are four records of gifts from Wessex. After 890 
we have no such record in Alfred's reign ; and in 
Alfred's will there is no mention of the spiritual 
head of the Church of the West. 

We learn from our own great historian, William 
of Malmesbury, that Kenulf wrote two later latters 
to Leo on this subject, and he gives us Leo's reply. 1 
Athelhard, the Pope says, has come to the holy 
churches of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, to 
fulfil his vow of prayer and to inform the Pope of 
his ecclesiastical mission. He tells the king that 
by the authority of St. Peter, the chief of the 
apostles, whose office though unworthily he fills, 
he gives to Athelhard such prelatical authority that 
if any in the province, whether kings, princes, or 
people, transgress the commands of the Lord, he 



1 Gesta Regum, i. 4. 
I 



114 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

shall excommunicate them till they repent. Con- 
cerning the jurisdiction which the archbishops of 
Canterbury had held, as well over bishops as over 
monasteries, of which they had been unjustly 
deprived, the Pope had made full inquiry, and now 
placed all ordinations and confirmations on their 
ancient footing, and restored them to him entire. 
Thus did Pope Leo III condemn the injustice of 
Pope Hadrian I. We had better have managed 
our own affairs, instead of paying to foreigners 
infinite sums of money to mismanage them. 

Before we leave this strange episode of the 
creation of an archbishopric of Lichfield, it is of 
special local interest to us in Bristol, and to the 
deanery of Stapleton, that the chief Mercian pre- 
late, Higbert of Lichfield, signed deeds relating 
to Westbury upon Trym and Aust on Severn, 
above the archbishop of Canterbury. This was 
in 794. Offa the king signed first, Ecgferth, the 
king's young son, second, and then Hygeberht; 
Ethelhard of Canterbury coming fifth in one and 
fourth in the other. The first deed gave from 
the king to his officer Ethelmund, in 794 5 four 
oassates of land at the place called Westbury, in 
the province of the Huiccians, near the river called 
Avon, free of all public charges except the three 
which were common to all, namely, for the king's 
military expeditions, for the building of bridges, 
and for the fortification of strongholds. 1 The other 

1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 483. The names stand 
as follows: " +Ego Offa Rex Dei dono propriam donationis 
libertatem signo sanctaa crucis confirmo. +Ego Ecgferth, 
filius Regis, consensi. +!3ignum Hygeberht i Archiepiscopi. 
+ Signum Ceolulfi Episcopi. +Signum iEthelheardi Archi- 
episcopi. Followed by eight bishops and three abbats. 



ALCUIN S LETTER ON THE RESTORED PRIMACY. 115 

deed restores to the see of Worcester (Wegrin) the 
land of five families at Aust, which the duke 
Bynna had taken without right, it being the pro- 
perty of the see of Worcester. To make all safe, 
six dukes made the sign of the cross at the foot 
of this deed, which is, as we all know, the origin 
of the modern phrase ' signing ' a deed or a letter. 
The dukes included Bynna himself. 

Alcuin wrote a veiy wise letter to Athelhard Ep. 85 
of Canterbury on the occasion of the restoration A - D - 797 
of the primacy. He advised that penance should 
be done. Athelhard and all the people should 
keep a fast, he for having left his see, they for 
having accepted error. There should be diligent 
prayers, and alms, and solemn masses, everywhere, 
that God might wipe out what any of them had 
done wrong. The archbishop was specially urged 
to bring back study into the house of God, that 
is, the conventual home of the monks and the 
archbishop, with its centre, the cathedral church. 
There should be young men reading, and a chorus 
of singers, and the study of books, in order that 
the dignity of that holy see might be renewed, 
and they might deserve to have the privilege of 
electing to the primacy. 

u The unity of the Church, which has been in 
part cut asunder, not as it seems for any reasonable 
cause but from grasping at power, should, if it 
can be done, be restored in peaceful ways; the 
rent should be stitched up again. You should 
take counsel with all your bishops, and with your 
brother of York, on this principle, that the pious 
father Higbert of Lichfield be not deprived of his 
pall during his lifetime, but the consecration of 
12 



116 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



A.D 



bishops must come back to the holy and primal 
see. Let your most holy wisdom see to it that 
loving' concord exist among the chief shepherds of 
the churches of Christ." 

With regard to the remark of Alcuin that 
Athelhard should do penance for having left his 
see, it may be explained that Alcuin had in vain 
advised Athelhard not to leave England on the 
restoration of the primacy to Canterbury. Athel- 
hard persisted in visiting Rome, and informed 
Alcuin that he had commenced the journey. 
E P . 171 Alcuin thereupon wrote this: — " Return, return, 
801 - holy father, as soon as your pious embassy is 
finished, to your lost sheep. As there are two 
eyes in the body, so I believe and desire that you 
two, Canterbury and York, give light throughout 
the breadth of all Britain. Do not deprive your 
country of its right eye." 

Then Alcuin gives a very significant hint that 
the ways of the clergy of England are not good 
enough for France, and they had better not let 
Charlemagne see anything of that kind. 

" If you come to the lord king, warn your com- 
panions, and especially the clergy, that they acquit 
themselves in an honourable manner, in all holy 
religion, in dress, and in ecclesiastical order; so 
that wherever you go you leave always an 
example of all goodness. Forbid them to wear in 
the presence of the lord king ornaments of gold 
or robes of silk ; let them go humbly clad, after 
the manner of servants of God. And through 
every district you must pass with peace and honest 
conversation, for you know the manner and custom 
of this Frankish race." 



ALCUIN'S LETTERS TO ATHELHARD AND KARL. 117 

Nothing could make more clear the command- 
ing position held by Alcuin than this exceedingly 
free counsel from a deacon to the Primate of 
England. We may quote portions of yet another 
letter giving the same impression. 

In a letter to Athelhard after his safe return to Ep. 190 
England and a favourable reception which he had A>D - 802 - 
reported to Alcuin, Alcuin congratulated the arch- 
bishop on the restoration to its ancient dignity of 
the most holy see of the first teacher of our race. 
By divine favour, the members now once more 
cohered in unity with the proper head, and natural 
peace shone forth between the two chief prelates 
of Britain, and one will of piety and concord was 
vigorous under the two cities of metropolitans. 
" And now," he writes, "now that you have re- 
ceived the power to correct and the liberty to 
preach, fear not, speak out ! The silence of the 
bishop is the ruin of the people/'' 

It is an interesting fact that we have a letter 
which Alcuin wrote to Karl, introducing to him 
this same archbishop on the very journey of which 
he so decidedly disapproved. 

"To the most greatly desired lord David the Ep. 172 
king, Flaccus his pensioner wishes eternal health A - D - 801 - 
in Christ. 

" The sweetness of your affection, and the assu- 
rance of your approved piety, very often urge me 
to address letters to your authority, and by the 
office of syllables to trace out that which bodily 
frailty prevents my will from accomplishing. But 
novel circumstances compel me now to write once 
more, that the paper may bring the affection of the 
heart, and may pour into the ears of your piety 



118 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



the prayers which never have been in vain in the 
presence of your pity. Nor do I believe that my 
prayers for your stableness and safety are vain 
in the sight of God, for the divine grace gladly 
receives the tears which flow forth from the fount 
of love 1 . 

" I have been informed that certain of the friends 
of your Flaccus, Edelard to wit, Metropolitan of 
the See of Dorobernia and Pontiff of the primatial 
see in Britain, and Ceilmund 2 of the kingdom of 
the Mercians, formerly minister of king Offa, and 
Torhcmund 3 the faithful servant of king Edilred, 
a man approved in faith, strenuous in arms, who 
has boldly avenged the blood of his lord, desire to 
approach your piety 4 . All of these have been very 
faithful to me, and have aided me on my journey ; 
they have also aided my boys as they went about 
hither and thither. I pray your best clemency to 
receive them with your wonted kindness, for they 
have been close friends to me. I have often known 
bishops religious and devoted in Christ's service, 
and men strong and faithful in secular dignity, to 
be laudable to your equity ; for there is no doubt 
that all the best men, approved by their own con- 
science, love good men, being taught by the ex- 
ample of the omnipotent God who is the highest 

1 It has already been noted that Alcuin found it very 
difficult to shed tears. 

- " Ceolinund the duke,'' "Ceolmund the minister," 
often appears in the Mercian documents of the time. 

3 Simeon of Durham, under the year 779, has the entry, 
Duke Aldred, the slayer of King Ethelred, was slain by 
Duke Thorhtmund in revenge for his lord. 

* This amounts to an official representation of the three 
great powers, the West Saxons, the Mercians, and the 
Northumbrians. 



KARL ON CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 119 

good. And it is most certain that every creature 
that has reason has by His goodness whatever of 
good it has, the Very Truth saying, ' I am the 
light of the world. He that followeth me walketh 
not in darkness but shall have the light of life.' 
John viii. 12." 

Before we leave Mercian affairs and the rela- 
tions between Karl and Offa, it may be of interest 
to give a letter 1 from Karl to Offa which will 
serve to show the extreme care he took in order 
to maintain ecclesiastical discipline, and the 
severity of that discipline. That a man with all 
the affairs of immense dominions on his hands 
should have made time to produce such a letter 
on such a point seems very worthy of note. 
Karl's statement of his titles shows that this is 
an early letter. 

" Karl, by the grace of God king of the Franks 
and Defender of the Holy Church of God, to his 
loved brother and friend Offa greeting. 

"That priest who is a Scot 2 has been living 
among us for some time, in the diocese of Hilde- 
bold, Bishop 3 of Cologne. He has now been 
accused of eating meat in Lent. Our priests 
refuse to judge him, because they have not re- 
ceived full evidence from the accusers. They 
have, however, not allowed him to continue to 
reside there, on account of this evil report, lest the 
honour in which the priesthood is held should be 
diminished among ignorant folk, or others should 
be tempted by this rumour to violate the holy 
fast. Our priests are of opinion that he should 

1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 486. 2 An Irishman. 

3 From 784 to 819. 



120 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

be sent to the judgement of his own bishop, where 
his oath was taken. 

"We pray your providence to order that he 
transfer himself as soon as conveniently may be 
to his own land, that he may be judged in the 
place from which he came forth. For there also 
it must be that the purity in manners and firmness 
in faith and honesty of conversation of the Holy 
Church of God are diligently kept according to 
canonical sanction, like a dove perfect and un- 
spotted, whose wings are as of silver and the 
hinder parts should shine as gold. 

" Life, health, and prosperity be given to thee 
and thy faithful ones by the God Christ for ever/'' 

A letter which Karl wrote to Athelhard of Can- 
terbury begging him to intercede for some exiles, 
sets forth his style and title very differently 1 , 
evidently at a later date. 

It bears very directly upon one of the complaints 
which, as we have seen, Offa had made in letters 
to Karl; namely, the shelter afforded at Karl's 
court to fugitives from Mercia. 

" Karl, by the grace of God king of the Franks 
and Lombards and Patrician of the Romans, to 
Athilhard the archbishop and Ceolwulf his brother 
bishop, eternal beatitude. 

" In reliance on that friendship which we formed 
in speech when we met, we have sent to your piety 
these unhappy exiles from their fatherland ; pray- 
ing that you would deign to intercede for them 
with my dearest brother king Offa, that they may 
be allowed to live in their own land in peace, 

1 Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 487. 



LETTER OF KARL TO ATHELHARD. 121 

without any unjust oppression. For their lord 
Umhrinsgstan 1 is dead. It appeared to us that he 
would have been faithful to his own lord if he had 
been allowed to remain in his own land ; but, as he 
used to say, he fled to us to escape the danger of 
death, always ready to purge himself of any un- 
faithfulness. That reconciliation might ensue we 
kept him with us for a while, not from any 
unfriendliness. 

" If you are able to obtain peace for these his 
fellow tribesmen, let them remain in their father- 
land. But if my brother gives a hard reply about 
them, send them back to me uninjured. It is 
better to live abroad than to perish, to serve in 
a foreign land than to die at home. I have con- 
fidence in the goodness of my brother, if you plead 
strenuously with him for them, that he will receive 
them benignantly for the love that is between us, 
or rather for the love of Christ, who said, Forgive 
and it shall be forgiven you. 

" May the divine piety keep thy holiness, inter- 
ceding for us, safe for ever/'' 

It was a skilful stroke of business on Karl's part 
to send the men over to the charge of the arch- 
bishop, which amounted to putting them in 
sanctuary. If he had kept them in France and 
written to beg that they might be allowed to 
return, it would have been much easier for Oifa 
to say no. And if he had sent them direct to 
Offa in the first instance, they would probably 
never have got out of his clutches at all. 

1 We know nothing certain of this person. 



CHAPTER VII 

List of the ten kings of Northumbria of Alcuin's time. — 
Destruction of Lindisfarne, Wearmouth, and Jarrow, by the 
Danes. — Letters of Aleuin on the subject to King Ethelred, 
the Bishop and monks of Lindisfarne, and the monks of 
Wearmouth and Jarrow. — His letter to the Bishop and 
monks of Hexham. 

We must now turn to Alcuin's native kingdom 
of Northumbria, over whose evil fortunes he grieved 
so greatly in the home of his adoption. 

I do not know how better some idea can be 
formed of the political chaos to which Northumbria 
was reduced in the time of Aleuin than by reading 
a list of the kings of that time. It is a most 
bewildering list. 

All went well so long as Eadbert, the brother of 
Archbishop Ecgbert, reigned. He was the king of 
Alcuin's infancy and boyhood and earliest man- 
hood. His reign lasted from 737 to 758, when he 
retired into a monastery. He was the 21st king, 
beginning with Ida who created the kingdom in 
547. He was succeeded by (22) Oswulf his son, 
who was within a year slain by his household 
officers, July 24, 759, and was succeeded on 
August 4 by (23) Ethelwald, of whose parentage 
we do not know anything. In 765 he was de- 
prived by a national assembly, and (24) Alchred 
was placed on the throne, a fifth cousin of the 
murdered Oswulf, and therefore of the royal line. 
In 774 he was banished, and went in exile to the 



VIOLENCE IN NORTHUMBRIA. 123 

king of the Picts, being succeeded by (25) Ethelred, 
the son of his deprived predecessor Ethel wald. 
Ethelred reigned from 774 to 779, when in con- 
sequence of cruel murders ordered by him he was 
driven out, and (26) Alfwold, son of (22) Oswulf, 
and therefore of the old royal line, succeeded. 
Alfwold was murdered in 788, and was succeeded 
by (27) Osred, the son of (24) Alchred, sixth 
cousin of his predecessor, and therefore of the royal 
line. After a year he was deposed and tonsured, 
and was eventually put to death in 792 by (25) 
Ethelred, who had recovered the throne lost by his 
expulsion in 779. He was killed in 796 in a 
faction fight, after he had put to death the last 
two males, so far as we know, of the royal line of 
Eadbert, JSlf and iBlf wine, sons of (26) Alfwold. 
Simeon of Durham tells us (a. d. 791) that they 
were persuaded by false promises to leave sanctuary 
in the Cathedral Church of York ; were taken by 
violence out of the city; and miserably put to 
death by Ethelred in Wonwaldrenute. He was 
succeeded by (28) Osbald, of unknown parentage, 
but a patrician of Northumbria ; he only reigned 
twenty- seven days, fled to the king of the Picts, 
and died an abbat three years later, in 799. He 
was succeeded by (29) Eardulf, a patrician of the 
blood royal, 1 who had been left for dead by 
(25) Ethelred, but had recovered when laid out 
for burial by the monks of Ripon. He had the 
fullest recognition as king ; was consecrated at 
the great altar of St. Paul in York Minster on 
May 26, 796, by Archbishop Eanbald. In his 

1 We cannot trace his pedigree. 



124 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

reign Alcuin died. In 806 he was driven out 
by (30) Elfwald, of unknown parentage, but by 
the help of the Emperor Charlemagne he was 
restored in 808. He died in 810, and was suc- 
ceeded by his son (31) Eanred, who was the last 
king but one of the royal house, and the last in- 
dependent king of Northumbria, dying in 840, 
and being succeeded by his son (32) Ethelred II, 
expelled in 844, restored in the same year, and 
killed sine prole in 848. 

This, as has been said, is a most bewildering list. 
It is, however, convenient to have it stated at 
length, inasmuch as several of these kings are 
named in a noteworthy manner in the letters of 
Alcuin. To emphasize the view that Alcuin took 
of the state of Northumbria, the list just given 
may be summarized thus, it being borne in mind 
that every king who reigned in Alcuin's time after 
Eadbert's death in 758 is included in the summary. 
Oswulf, murdered 759 ; Ethelwald, deprived 765 
Alchred, banished 774; Ethelred, expelled 779 
Alfwold, murdered 788; Osred, deposed 789 
Ethelred, killed by his own people, 796 ; Osbald, 
expelled 797 ; Eardulf, expelled 806. 

The Venerable Bede had said in his letter to 
Archbishop Ecgbert in 735 that unless some very 
great change for the better was made in all walks 
of life in Northumbria, that country would find its 
men quite unable to defend it successfully if an 
invasion took place. We have seen that so far as 
the reigning persons were concerned, the change 
was for the worse ; we have now to see how 
bitterly true Bede's prophecy, or rather his cal- 
culation of the necessary consequences, proved to 



PILLAGE OF LINDISFARNE. 125 

be. We are taken in thought to the year 793, not 
quite sixty years after Bede's letter. One excellent 
reign had lasted twenty-one years, the next eight 
reigns averaged four and a half years, and all 
ended in violence. 

Higbald, the eleventh Bishop of Lindisfarne, 
780-803, takes us back nearly to the best times of 
that specially Holy Isle. Ethelwold, 724-40, 
his next predecessor but one, was the bishop under 
whom King Ceolwulf, to whom Bede dedicated 
his famous work the Ecclesiastical History of the 
English Bace, became a monk. It was this king- 
monk that taught the monks of Lindisfarne to 
drink wine and ale instead of the milk and water 
prescribed by their Scotic founder, Aidan. His 
head was preserved in St. Cuthbert's coffin. Ethel- 
wold's immediate predecessor was Eadfrith, 698- 
721, who wrote that glorious Evangeliarium which 
is a chief pride of England, the Lindisfarne Gospels. 
To Bishop Eadfrith and his monks Bede dedicated 
his Life of St. Cuthbert, between whom and Eadfrith 
only one bishop had intervened. The entry at the 
end of the Lindisfarne Gospels connects Ethelwold 
and Eadfrith with the production and binding of 
that noble specimen of the earliest Anglian work. 
Put into modern English it runs thus : — 

(< Eadfrith, bishop of the church of Lindisfarne, 
he wrote this book at first, for God and St. Cuthbert 
and all the saints that are in the island, and Ethel- 
wald, the bishop of Lindisfarne island, he made it 
firm outside and bound it as well as he could. " 

The entry proceeds to tell that Billfrith, the 
anchorite, wrought in smith's work the ornaments 
that were on the outside with gold and gems and 



126 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



silver overlaid, a treasure without deceit. And 
Aldred, the presbyter, unworthy and most miserable, 
glossed it in English, and made himself at home 
with the three parts, the Matthew part for God 
and St. Cuthbert, the Mark part for the bishop — 
unfortunately it is not said for which of the 
bishops, the Luke part for the brotherhood. Only 
one bishop came between Ethel wold, who bound 
this priceless treasure, and Higbald, to whom we 
now turn. 

The Saxon Chronicle has under the year 787 
this entry : — " In this year King Beorhtric [of 
Wessex] took to wife Eadburg, daughter of King 
Ofra. In his days came three ships of the North- 
men from Haurthaland [on the west coast of 
Norway]. And the sheriff rode to meet them 
there, and would force them to the king's residence, 
for he knew not what they were. And there they 
slew him. These were the first ships of Danish 
men that sought the land of the English race." 

They soon came again, this time not to the 
coast of Wessex, but to the coast easiest of access 
from their own land. In 793 this is the entry in 
the Saxon Chronicle : — 

" In this year dire forewarnings came over the 
land of Northumbria and pitifully frightened the 
people, violent whirlwinds and lightnings, and 
fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. These 
tokens mickle hunger soon followed, and a little 
after that, in this same year, on the sixth of the 
ides of January [January 8] the harrying of 
heathen men pitifully destroyed God's church in 
Lindisfarne through rapine and manslaughter." 

In the next year, 794, it is said : — 



PILLAGE OF WEARMOUTH AND JARROW 127 

"The heathen ravaged among the North- 
umbrians, and plundered Ecgferth's minster at 
Donmouth [Wearmouth] ; and there one of their 
leaders was slain, and also some of their ships were 
wrecked by a tempest, and many of them were 
there drowned, and some came to shore alive and 
men soon slew them off at the river mouth.'''' 

Wattenbach and Dummler make the ruin of 
Lindisfarne take place not on January 8 but on 
June 8. The Saxon Chronicle has Ianr. in both of 
the MSS. which name the month. There is only 
one other entry in the year 793, and it follows 
this, — "And Siega [who had murdered King 
Alfuold] died 1 on the 8th of the Kalends of 
March/'' that is, February 22. It is clear that 
these two events took place at the end of 793, the 
years at that time ending with March, and 
January, not June, was the month of ruin. 

The twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow 
are described as Eegfertrr's minster, because King 
Ecgfrith of Northumbria, 670-85, gave land to 
Benet Biscop to found a monastery at the mouth 
of the Don, now called the Wear, and some years 
later another portion of land for the twin 
monastery of St. Paul, Jarrow. Later in Biscop's 
life he purchased two additional pieces of land 
from the next king, Aldfrith, giving for the first 
two royal robes, or palls, made all of silk, worked 
in an incomparable manner, which he had bought 
in Rome. For the second, a much larger piece, 
he gave to the king a manuscript collection of 
geographical writings, of beautiful workmanship. 

■ 1 Simeon of Durham says that he committed suicide. 



128 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



We in the south-west must always remember that 
Benedict Bishop first brought his vast ecclesiastical 
treasures to the court of Wessex, but finding his 
royal patron dead went up north with them. But 
for the death of the King of Wessex, we should 
have had Wearmouth and Jarrow here as well as 
Malmesbury, Bede as well as Aldhelm, and it may 
be Alcuin too. 

We have letters of Alcuin to King Ethelred, to 
Higbald the Bishop of Lindisfarne, and to the 
monks of the twin monastery of Monkwearmouth 
and Jarrow, on this catastrophe. The letter to 
Ethelred comes first : — 
Ep. 22 " To my most loved lord King Ethelred and all 

a.d. 793. hi s chief men the humble levite Alchuine sends 
greeting. 

" Mindful of your most sweet affection, my 
brothers and fathers and lords honourable in 
Christ ; deeply desiring that the divine mercy may 
preserve to us in long-lived prosperity the father- 
land which that mercy long ago gave to us with 
gratuitous freedom; I therefore, comrades most 
dear, whether present, if God allow it, by my 
words, or absent by my writings under the 
guidance of the divine spirit, do not cease from 
admonishing you, and by frequent repetition to 
convey to your ears, you who are citizens of the 
same fatherland, those things which are known 
to pertain to the safety of this earthly realm and 
to the blessedness of the heavenly home ; so that 
things many times heard may grow into your 
minds with good result. For what is love to 
a friend if it keeps silence on matters useful to 
the friend ? To what does a man owe fidelity if 



ALCUINS LETTER TO ETHELRED. 129 

not to his country? To whom does a man owe 
prosperity if not to its citizens? By a double 
relationship we are fellow-citizens of one city in 
Christ, that is as sons of Mother Church and of 
one native country. Let not therefore your 
humanity shrink from accepting benignly what 
my devotion seeks to offer for the safety of our 
land. Think not that I am charging faults 
against you : take it that I aim at warding off: 
penalties."''' 

We should here bear in mind that Ethelred had 
fourteen years before this been expelled for cruel 
murders, and that he was now in the first year of 
his restored reign and had already sent away his 
first wife and taken another, a scandal so great in 
those days — bad as they were — that the Saxon 
Chronicle with remarkable particularity gives the 
month and the day of the gross offence, 
September 29. He afterwards murdered the two 
surviving members of the royal house. 
Alcuin's letter to the king proceeds : — 
" It is now nearly 350 years that we and our 
fathers have dwelt in this most fair land, and 
never before has such a horror appeared in Britain 
as we now have suffered at the hands of pagans. 
And it was not supposed that such an attack from 
the sea was possible. 1 Behold, the church of the 
holy Cuthbert is deluged with the blood of the 
priests of God, is spoiled of all its ornaments; 
the place more venerable than any other in Britain 
is given as a prey to pagan races. From the spot 
where, after the departure of the holy Paulinus 

1 In theory, at least, we know better now. 
K 



130 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



from York, the Christian religion took its be- 
ginning amongst ns, from that spot misery 
and calamity have begun. Who does not fear? 
Who does not mourn this as if his fatherland itself 
was captured ? " 

We should note Alcuin's recognition of the fact 
that the restoration of Christianity in Northumbria 
was due not to persons of the Anglo-Saxon race 
and Church, but to Aidan and his monks of the 
Irish race and Church. 

" My brethren, give your most attentive con- 
sideration, your most diligent investigation, to this 
question, — is this most unaccustomed, most un- 
heard-of evil, brought upon us by some unheard-of 
evil custom ? I do not say that there was not 
among the people of old the sin of fornication. 
But since the days of King Alfwold 1 fornications, 
adulteries, incests, have inundated the land to such 
an extent that these sins are unblushingly per- 
petrated even among the handmaids dedicated to 
God. What shall I say of avarice, rapine, and 
judicial violence, when it is clearer than the light 
how these crimes have increased, and a despoiled 
people are the evidence of it. He who reads the 
Holy Scriptures, and revolves ancient history, and 
considers the working of the world, will find that 
for sins of this nature kings lose kingdoms, and 
peoples lose their father-land. He will find that 
when men in power have unjustly seized the 
property of others, they have justly lost their own. 
• » . . . • 

" Consider the manner of dress, the manner of 

1 a. d. 779 to 788. 



ALCUINS LETTER TO ETHELRED. 131 

wearing the hair, the luxurious habits of princes 
and of people. Look at the way in which the 
pagan manner of trimming the beard and cutting 
the hair is imitated. Do you not fear those whom 
you thus copy ? Look at the immoderate use of 
clothes, beyond any necessity of human nature. 
This superfluity of the princes is the poverty of 
the people. Some are loaded with garments, while 
others perish with cold. Some flow over with 
luxuries and feasts like the rich man in purple, 
while Lazarus at the gate dies of hunger. Where 
is brotherly love ? Where is that pity which we 
are bidden have for the wretched? The satiety 
of the rich man is the hunger of the poor. That 
Scripture saying is to be dreaded, c He shall have 
judgement without mercy that hath shewed no 
mercy ' *; and we have the words of the blessed 
Peter the Apostle 2 , ' The time is come that judge- 
ment must begin at the house of God.'' Judgement 
has begun, and with terrible force, at the house of 
God where rest so many lights of the whole of 
Britain. What is to be expected for other places, 
if the divine judgement has not spared this most 
holy place ? It is not for the sins of only those 
who dwelled there that this has been sent. 

" Would that the penalty that has come upon 
them could bring others to amend their lives. 
Would that the many would fear what the few 
have suffered, and each would say in his heart, 
groaning and trembling, c if such men, if fathers so 
holy, did not save their own habitation, the place 
of their own repose, who shall save mine ? 3 Save 
your country by assiduous prayers to God, by 

1 James ii. 13. 2 Pet. iv. 17. 

k2 



132 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



works of justice and of mercy. Be moderate in 
dress and in food. There is no better defence of 
a country than the equity and piety of princes, 
and the prayers of the servants of God/'' 

This is the letter which Alcuin wrote to the 
Bishop and monks of Lindisfarne : — 
Ep 24 " T° ^ ne k es ^ sons m Christ of the most blessed 

a.d. 793. father the holy bishop Cuthbert, Higbald the 
bishop and the whole body of the Church of 
Lindisfarne, the deacon . Alchuine sends greeting 
with heavenly benediction in Christ. 

" When I was with you, your friendly love was 
wont to give me much joy. And now that I am 
absent the calamity of your affliction greatly 
saddens me every day. The pagans have con- 
taminated the sanctuaries of God, and have poured 
out the blood of saints round about the altar ; have 
laid waste the house of our hope, have trampled 
upon the bodies of saints in the temple of God like 
dung in the street. What can I say but groan 
forth along with you before the altar of Christ, 
Spare, O Lord, spare thy people ; give not thine 
heritage to the Gentiles, lest the pagans say 
1 Where is the God of the Christians?' 

"What assurance is there for the churches of 
Britain if the holy Cuthbert, with so great a 
number of saints, does not defend his own Church ? 
Either this is the beginning of greater affliction, 
or else the sins of the dwellers there have called it 
upon them. It has not happened by chance ; it is 
the sign that calamity was greatly deserved. 

"But now, ye that survive, stand like men, 
fight bravely, defend the camp of God. Remember 
Judas Machabeus, how he purged the Temple of 



ALCUINS LETTER TO LINDISFARXE. 133 

God, and. freed the people from a foreign yoke. 
If anything in your manner of life needs cor- 
rection, pray correct it speedily. Call back to you 
your patrons, who have left you for a time. It 
was not that their influence with God's mercy 
failed; but, we know not why, they did not speak. 
Do not boast yourselves in the vanity of raiment ; 
that is matter not of boasting but of disgrace for 
priests and servants of God. Do not blur the 
words of your prayers with drunkenness. Do 
not go forth after pleasures of the flesh and 
greediness of the world ; but remain firmly in the 
service of God and in the discipline of the life by 
rule; that the most holy fathers whose sons you 
are may not cease to be your protectors. Go in 
their footsteps, and abide secure in their prayers. 
Be not degenerate sons of such ancestry. Never 
will they cease from your defence, if they see you 
follow their example. 

"Be not utterly cast down in mind by this 
calamity. God chastens every son whom he 
receives; and He has chastened you the more 
because he loves you more. Jerusalem, the city 
loved of God, and the Temple of God, perished in 
the flames of the Chaldeans. Rome, with her 
coronal of holy Apostles and innumerable martyrs, 
has been broken up by a pagan visitation ; but by 
God's pity has quickly recovered. Nearly the 
whole of Europe has been laid waste by the sword 
and the fire of Goths and of Huns ; but now, by 
God's mercy, as the sky is adorned with stars, so 
the land of Europe shines bright with churches, 
and in them the divine offices of the religion of 
Christ flourish and increase. 



134 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

"And thou, holy father, leader of the people 
of God, shepherd of the holy flock, physician of 
souls, light set upon a candlestick, be the form 
of all goodness to them that see you, the herald 
of salvation to all that hear you. Let your com- 
pany be honest in character, an example to others 
unto life, not to destruction. Let thy banquets 
be with sobriety, not with drunkenness. Let thy 
dress be suited to thy condition. Be not con- 
formed unto men of the world in any vain thing. 
The empty adornment of dress, and the useless 
care for it, is for thee a reproach before men and 
a sin before God. It is better to adorn with good 
habits the soul that is to live for ever, than to 
dress up in delicate garments the body that soon 
will decay in the dust. Let Christ be clothed and 
fed in the person of the poor man, that so with 
Christ you may reign. The ransom of a man is 
true riches. If we love gold, we should send it 
before us to heaven, where it will be of service 
to us. What we love, we have ; then let us love 
that which is eternal, not that which is perishable. 
Let us aim at the praise of God, not of men. Let 
us do what did the holy men whom we laud. 
Let us follow their footsteps on earth, that we 
may be worthy to be partakers in their glory in 
the heavens. 

" May the protection of the divine pity keep 
you from all adversity, and set you with your 
fathers in the glory of the kingdom of heaven. 
When our lord, King Karl, comes home, his 
enemies by God's mercy subdued, we will arrange 
to go to him, God helping us. If we are able 
then to help your holiness, either in the matter 



LETTERS TO LINDISFARNE, WEARMOUTH, JARROW. 135 

of the youths who have been carried captive by 
the pagans, or in any other need of yours, we will 
take diligent care to carry it through/'' 

Alcuin soon after wrote another letter to the 
bishop and monks of Lindisfarne, and yet another 
to Cudrad, probably Cuthred, a presbyter of 
Lindisfarne, who had been carried off by the 
Northmen and then rescued. In these letters he 
urges them to bear in mind that prayers are more 
valuable as a defence than collections of arrows 
and weapons, and heaps of stones for hurling at 
an enemy. From this it would appear that the 
monastery at Lindisfarne was being fortified. 

To the monks of Wearmouth and Jarrow, whose 
geographical situation rendered them very liable 
to a raid by the pirate northmen, he wrote a very 
long and interesting letter, some extracts from 
which may here be given. 

" Keep most diligently the regular life [the life Ep. 27 
by rule] which your most holy fathers, [the abbats] A,D * /9 ' 3, 
Benedict 1 [Biscop] and Ceolfrid, 2 decreed for you. 

" Let the Rule of Saint Benedict [of Nursia, the 
abbat of Monte Cassino] be very often read in 
the assembly of the brethren, and expounded in the 
vulgar tongue that all may understand. 

(( Consider whom you have as your defence 
against the pagans who have appeared in your 
maritime parts. Set not your hope on arms, but 
on God. Trust not to carnal flight, but in the 

1 He died in 703. 

2 He resigned in 716, and took from the library of Wear- 
mouth the Codex Amiatinus as a present to the Pope. 
This huge and noble codex is now in the Laurenziana, in 
Florence. See my Lessons from Early English Church History, 
pp. 72-75. 



136 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



prayer of your forefathers. Who does not fear 
the terrible fate which has befallen the church of 
the holy Cuthbert ? You, also, dwell on the sea, 
from which this pest first comes. 

"Bear in mind the nobleness of your fathers, 
and be not degenerate sons. Look at the treasures 
of your library, the beauty of your churches, the 
fairness of your buildings. How happy the man 
who, from those most fair dwellings, passes to the 
joys of the kingdom of heaven. 

"Accustom the boys to the praise of the heavenly 
King, not to digging out the earths of foxes, not 
to coursing the swift hare. How impious it is to 
leave the worship of Christ and follow the trace of 
the fox. Let them learn the sacred Scriptures, that 
when they are grown up they may teach others. 
He who does not learn in youth does not teach in 
age. Remember Bede the presbyter, the most 
noble teacher of our age, what a love he had for 
learning as a bo}^ ; what honour he has now among 
men ; what glory of reward with God. Quicken 
slumbering minds with his example. Attend 
lectures ; open your books ; study the text ; under- 
stand its meaning ; that you may both feed your- 
selves and feed others with the food of the spiritual 
life. 

" Avoid private feasting and secret drinking as 
a pitfall of hell. Solomon says that stolen waters 
are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant, but 
the guests are in the depth of hell; he means 
that at such feasts there are demons present. Do 
not lose eternal joys for sloth of mind or fleshl}- 
delights." 

As we have seen, the same destruction that had 



ALCUINS LETTER TO HEXHAM. 137 

come upon Lindisfarne came very soon after upon 
"Wearmouth and Jarrow. Bede little knew how 
close home the blow which he forecast would strike. 

We should have felt that something was want- 
ing if no letter had been preserved from Alcuin 
to the bishop and monks of Hexham. Hexham 
was the see of one of Bede's most highly valued 
correspondents, Aeca. Of the very small number 
of letters written by Bede which have come down 
to us, only fourteen in all, eight are addressed to 
Acca. They are in the main formal treatises on 
several parts of the Old and New Testaments, in- 
cluding a treatise on the Temple of Solomon which 
was probably suggested by the remarkable illustra- 
tion of the Tabernacle in the Codex Amiatinus. The 
Church of St. Andrew, Hexham, built by Wilfrith, 
and St. Peter, Ripon, also built by him, were in 
Wilfrith/s time the two finest churches north of the 
Alps. We have the description of them by Wilfrith/s 
chaplain, Stephen Eddi. 1 Almost the whole of 
one of the two exquisite sculptured crosses which 
were placed at the head and foot of Acca's grave 
is still in existence. The magnificent restoration 
of the Abbey Church of Hexham in this year of 
grace, 1908, is one of the greatest ecclesiastical 
works of the young twentieth century. 

' ' To the shepherd of chief dignity Aedilberit 2 Ep. 88, 
the bishop, and to all the congregation of the oct° 16, 
servants of God in the Church of St. Andrew [of 797. 
Hexham], Alchuini, the humble client of your 
love in Christ, wishes health. 

1 See my Theodore and Wilfrith, pp. 106, 124, and for Acca's 
Cross, pp. 257-61. 

2 Bishop of Whithern (Candentis-Casae, Ep. 20, usually 
Candidae Casae), 777-789; of Hexham, 789-797. 



138 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



" Earnestly desirous of spiritual friendship, I am 
at pains to address to your sanctity the poor letters 
of my littleness, both that I may renew the pact 
of our ancient intimacy and that I may commend 
myself to your most sacred prayers. And if ac- 
cording to the Apostle the prayer of one just man 
availeth much, how much more the prayers of 
a most holy congregation in Christ, the inter- 
cessions of whose peaceful concord daily at the 
canonical hours are believed to reach heaven, while 
the secret prayer of each single one beyond doubt 
reaches to the ears of the omnipotent God. 
Wherefore with all humility of entreaty, so far 
as my request may avail with your piety, I com- 
mend myself both to the united prayer of all and 
to the individual prayer of each ; that by the 
prayers of your sanctity, freed from the chain of 
my sins, I may with you, my dearest friends, enter 
the gates of life. 

" O most noble progeny of holy fathers, suc- 
cessors of their honour and their venerable life, 
and inhabiters of their most beautiful places, follow 
the footsteps of your fathers; that from these 
most beautiful habitations you may attain by the 
gift of God to a portion in the eternal blessedness 
of those that begat you, to the beauty of the 
kingdom of heaven. 

" Learn to know God and to obey His precepts, 
Himself saying to you f If thou wilt enter into life, 
keep the Commandments \ Therefore the reading 
of the Holy Scriptures is necessary, for in them 
each may learn what he must follow and what 
avoid. Let the light of learning dwell among 
you, and give light through you to other churches. 



ALCUINS LETTER TO HEXHAM. 139 

that the praise of you may sound forth in the 
mouth of all, and your reward may remain eternal 
in the heavens. Each man shall receive the reward 
of his own work. Teach diligently the boys and 
the young* men the knowledge of books in the way 
of the Lord, that they may become worthy to 
succeed to your honour, and may be your inter- 
cessors. For the prayers of the living are profitable 
to the dying, whether to the pardon of sin or to 
the increase of glory. He who sows not does not 
reap; he who learns not does not teach. And 
such a house as yours without teachers cannot be, 
or can scarcely be, safe. Great is alms-doing, to 
feed the poor with food for the body ; but greater 
is it to satisfy the hungry soul with spiritual 
doctrine. As the provident shepherd takes care to 
supply his flock with all that is best, so the good 
teacher ought with all pains to procure for those 
under him the pastures of eternal life. For the 
increase of the flock is the glory of the shepherd, 
and the multitude of the wise is the safety of the 
world. I am aware that you, most holy fathers, 
fully know all this, and accomplish it ; but the 
love of him that dictates this has dragged the 
words from his mouth, believing that you are willing 
to read with pious humility that which I dictate 
with devoted soberness in the love of God. Again 
and again I beseech you that you deign to have 
my name in memory among those of your friends. 
"May the God Christ Himself hearken to your 
kindliness interceding for the whole Church of 
God, and grant that we may attain unto the glory 
of eternal beatitude, my dearest brothers/'' 



CHAPTER VIII 

Alcuin's letters to King Eardulf and the banished intruder 
Osbald. — His letters to King Ethelred and Ethelred's mother. 
— The Irish claim that Alcuin studied at Clonmacnoise. — 
Mayo of the Saxons. 

Alcuin had grievous anxieties about the manner 
of life of the kings of his native province, and the 
continual revolutions and disputed successions. 
Things got worse as he grew into older age — old 
age as it was then counted. 

In the previous chapter we have seen a letter of 
his to Ethelred, the King of Northumbria, under 
date 793. He wrote another letter to him in that 
same year, which he addressed in the following 
affectionate form : — " To my most excellent son 
Ethelred the king, to my most sweet friends 
Osbald the patrician and Osbert the duke, to all 
the friends of my brotherly love, Alchuin the levite 
desires eternal beatitude/'' 

In the year 796 Ethelred, as we have seen, was 
killed in a faction fight, after putting to death the 
last two males of the royal line of Eadbert, the 
brother of Archbishop Ecgbert, and was succeeded 
by " my most sweet friend Osbald the patrician ", 
who, however, only reigned twenty-seven days, 
and had not time to strike any coins with his 
name and effigy. Eardulf, a man of considerable 
position, succeeded. He was in a very full manner 



ALCUINS LETTER TO EARDULF. 141 

recognized as king, being consecrated, as Simeon 
of Durham tells us (a. d. 796), c< in the Church of 
St. Peter, at the altar of the blessed apostle Paul, 
where the race of the Angles first received the 
grace of baptism/'' On this altar, see page 81. 

It is an interesting fact that we have two letters 
of Alcuin, written, the one to (28) Osbald on his 
banishment, the other to (29) Eardulf on his suc- 
cession to the throne from which Osbald had been 
banished. It can very seldom have happened that 
a man has had to write two letters under such 
conditions. 

" To the illustrious man Eardwulf the King, Ep. 65 
Alchuine 1 the deacon sends greeting. a. d. 79 

" Mindful of the old friendship to which we are 
pledged, and rejoicing greatly in thy venerated 
salutation, I am at pains to address thy laudable 
person with a letter on a few points touching the 
prosperity of the kingdom conferred on thee by 
God, and the salvation of thy soul, and the manner 
in which the honour put into thy hands by the 
gift of God may remain stable. 

"Thou knowest very well from what dangers 
the divine mercy has freed thee, 2 and how easily, 
when it would, it has brought thee to the kingdom. 

1 Writing to an Englishman, Alcuin gives his Anglian 
name in its Anglian spelling and without a Latin termina- 
tion. 

) 2 See p. 123. The full story is given by Simeon of 
Durham under the year 790, meaning 791 : "In the second 
year of Ethelred (i. e. of his restored sovereignty) Duke 
Eardulf was captured and taken to Ripon, and was ordered 
by the said king to be put to death outside the gate of the 
monastery. The brethren carried the body to the church 
with Gregorian chants, and placed it in a shed outside the 
door. He was found after midnight in the church, alive." 



142 ALCUIN OP YORK. 

Be always grateful, and mindful of such very great 
gifts of God to thee ; that as far as thou canst the 
will of God thou wilt do with thy whole heart; 
and be obedient to the servants of God who keep 
thee warned of His Commandments. Know of a 
surety that none other can preserve thy life than 
He who hath freed thee from present death ; and 
none can protect and keep thee in that honour of 
thine but He who of His free pity hath granted 
that dignity to thee. Keep diligently in thy mind 
mercy and justice, for, as Solomon says, and, more 
than that, God allows, in mercy and justice shall 
the throne of a kingdom be established. 

" Consider most intently for what sins thy pre- 
decessors have lost their kingdom and their life, 
and take exceeding care that thou do not the like, 
lest the same judgement fall on thee. The per- 
juries of some God has condemned; the adulteries 
of others He has punished ; the avarice and deceits 
of others He has avenged ; the injustice of others 
has displeased Him. God is no respecter of persons, 
and those who do such things shall not possess the 
kingdom of God. Instruct first thyself in all 
goodness and soberness, and afterwards the people 
over whom thou art set, in all modesty of life and 
of raiment, in all truth of faith and of judgements, 
in keeping the Commandments of God and in 
probity of morals. So wilt thou both stablish thy 
kingdom, and save thy people, and rescue them 
from the wrath of God, which by sure signs has 
long been hanging over them. 

" Never would so much blood of nobles and of 
rulers be poured forth in your nation, never would 
the pagans lay waste holy places, never would such 



LETTERS TO EARDULF AND OS BALD. 143 

injustice and arrogance prevail among the people, 
if it were not that the manifest vengeance of God 
hangs over the inhabiters of the land. Do thou, 
preserved as I believe for better times, kept to set 
thy country right, do thou, by God's grace aiding 
thee, work out with full intent, in God's will, the 
safety of thine own soul and the prosperity of the 
country and the people committed to thy charge ; 
so that out of the setting-right of those subject to 
thy rule, thy kingdom here on earth may be 
stablished, and the glory of the kingdom to come 
be granted to thee and thy descendants. 

" Let this letter, I pray you, be kept with you, 
and very often read, for the sake of thy welfare 
and of my love, that the omnipotent God may 
deign to preserve thee in the increase of His holy 
church for the welfare of our race, flourishing long 
time in thy kingdom and advancing in all that is 
good. - " 

That letter finished, Alcuin proceeded next to 
write to the expelled usurper Osbald. He did 
not mince matters ; he dealt, as people say, very 
faithfully with him. 

"To my loved friend Osbald, 1 Alchuine the E P . 66 
deacon sends greeting. A,D - 796, 

ff I am displeased with thee, that thou didst 
not obey me when I urged thee in my letter of 
more than two years ago to abandon the lay life 

1 In April, 796, the Patrician Osbald was made king by 
certain leading men of the nation. But after twenty-seven 
days he was deserted by the whole of the royal family and 
the chief men, and was put to flight and banished from the 
kingdom. He escaped with a few followers to the Isle of 
Lindisfarne, and thence went by sea with some of the 
brethren to the king of the Picts. Sim. Dur. 795. 



144 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

and serve God according to thy vow. And now 
a worse, a more disastrous fate has come upon thy 
life. Turn again, turn again and fulfil thy vow. 
Seek an opportunity for entering upon the service 
of God, lest thou perish with those infamous men, 
if indeed thou art innocent of the blood of thy 
lord. 1 But if thou art guilty, by consent or 
design, confess thy sin; be reconciled with God, 
and leave the company of the murderers. The 
love of God and of the saints is better for thee 
than that of evil-doers. 

" Add not sin to sin by devastating thy country, 
by shedding blood. Think how much blood of 
kings, princes, and people has been shed by thee 
and thy kinsmen. Unhappy generation, from 
which so many evils have happened to the land. 
Set thyself free, I beseech thee by God, that thou 
perish not eternally. While there is time, run, 
hasten, hurry, to the mercy of God, who is ready 
to receive the penitent and to comfort them that 
turn to Him ; lest a day come when thou would est 
and canst not. Do not incur the shame of giving 
up what thou hast begun. There is more shame 
in your soul perishing eternally than in deserting 
in the present impious men. Better still if you 
can convert some of them from the wickedness 
they have committed : do your best, that you may 
have the reward of your own repentance and of 
other's repentance too. This is the love that 
covereth a multitude of sins; do this, and live 
happily and fare well in peace. 

" I beg that you will have this letter frequently 

1 Slain at Cobre (Corbridge has been suggested), April 18, 
796. 



alcuin's letter to ethelred. 145 

read in your presence, that you may be mindful 
o£ yourself in God, and may know what care I 
have, distant though I am, of your welfare. 

" If you can at all influence for good the 
people 1 among whom you are in exile, do not 
neglect the opportunity, that you may by God's 
grace the earlier reach your own recovery/'' 

The murder of Ethelred gave rise to this letter. 
Alcuin had been very faithful in his advice to 
Ethelred, as the following letter well shows. It 
is very carefully composed, and a great anxiety 
breathes in every balanced phrase. 

" To the most beloved lord Aedelred the kin^ E P- 42 
Alchuine the deacon sends greeting. 

"The intimacy of love urges me to write an 
intimate letter to thee alone. 2 Because I shall 
always love thee I shall never cease to admonish 
thee, in order that, being subdued to the will of 
God thou may est be made worthy of His pro- 
tection, and the nobility of the royal dignity may 
be made honourable by nobility of conduct. 

""No man is free or noble who is the slave of 
sin. The Lord says, 3 c Whosoever committeth sin 
is the slave of sin/ It becometh not thee, seated 
on the throne of the kingdom, to live like common 
men. Anger should not be lord over thee, but 
reason. Pity should make thee loveable, not 
cruelty hateful. Truth should proceed from thy 
mouth, not falsehood. Be to thine own self 
conscious of chasteness, not of lust; of self- 

1 The Picts of the east of Scotland. 

2 Matt, xviii. 15, " Go and tell him his fault between thee 
and him alone.'' 

15 John viii. 34. 



146 ALCUIN OF YORK, 

control, not of riotous living ; of sobriety, not of 
drunkenness. Be not notable in any sin, but 
laudable in every good work. Be large in giving, 
not greedy in taking. Let justice embellish all 
thine actions. Be the type of honour to all that 
see thee. Do not, do not, take other men's goods 
by force lest thou lose thine own. Fear God who 
has said ' with what judgement ye judge ye shall 
be judged '. Love the God Christ and obey His 
commands, that His mercy may preserve in bless- 
ing to thee, and to thy sons and followers, the 
kingdom which He has willed that thou shouldest 
hold, and may deign to grant the glory of future 
beatitude. 

" May the omnipotent God cause to flourish in 
felicity of reign, in dignity of life, in length of 
prosperity, thee, my most beloved son/'' 

We have letters written by Alcuin to Etheldry th 
the mother of king Ethelred, queen of Ethelwold 
Moll, king of Northumbria 759 to 765, who married 
her at Catterick in 762. In her widowhood she 
became an abbess, ruling over a mixed monastery 
of men and women, as is shown by the following 
letter, written before Ethelred's violent death : — 
Ep. 50 " To the most loved sister in Christ the Mother 

AD - Aedilthyde the humble levite Alchuine sends 

greeting. 

" When I gratefully received the gifts of your 
benignity, and gladly heard the salutation of your 
love, I confess that I was made glad by a great 
sweetness. For I knew that faithful love remained 
constant in your breast, which neither distance by 
land nor the stormy wave of tidal sea could stop 
from flying to me with beneficent munificence, 



'93-796. 



ALCUIN S LETTER TO ETHELDRYTH. 147 

even as it is said, 'Many waters cannot quench 
love, neither can the floods drown it/ 1 

"That thou mayest be worthy to hear in the 
day of judgement the voice of God saying, ' Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant/ instruct with 
instant care those that are under thee, admonish 
them by word, perfect them by example, for their 
safety is thy reward. Be not silent for fear of 
man, but for love of God speak, convince, rebuke, 
beseech. Them that sin openly chastise before all, 2 
that the rest may fear. Some admonish in the 
spirit of gentleness, others seize in the pastoral 
staff, diligently thinking out the remedy which 
best suits each. Sweet potions cure some; bitter, 
others. Honour the old women and the old men 
as mothers and fathers ; love the youthful as 
brothers and sisters; teach the little ones as sons 
and daughters; have care for all in Christ, that 
in Christ you may have reward for all. 

' ' Let thy vigils and prayers be frequent ; let 
psalms be in thy mouth, not vain talk on thy 
tongue ; the love of God in thy heart, not worldly 
ambition in thy mind ; for all that is loved in the 
world passes away, all that is esteemed in Christ 
remains. Whether we will or no, we shall be 
eternal. We should study with all intentness 
faithfully there to live where we are always to 
remain. 

" Honour frequently with divine praise and alms 
to the poor the festivals of saints, that you may 
be worthy of their intercession and partakers of 
their bliss. Let thy discourses be laudable for 

1 Cant. viii. 7. 2 1 Tim. v. 20. 

L 2 



148 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

their truth ; thy conduct loveable for its sobriety 
and modesty ; thy hands honourable for their free 
giving. Let the whole round of your life be an 
example in all goodness to others, that the dignity 
of your person be praised by all, be loved by many, 
and the name of God through thee be praised ; as the 
Truth Itself saith, ' Let your light so shine before 
men that they may see your good works and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven/ " 

The line which Alcuin takes in attempting to 
console Etheldryth after the violent death of a son 
who had lived a violent life, was a remarkable one. 
Ep. 62. " I cannot in bodily presence address by word of 

mouth your most sweet affection, because we live 
so far apart. I therefore do by the ministry of 
a letter that which is denied to my tongue. With 
all the power of my heart, I desire that you go 
forward in every good thing, most dear mother, 
and be made worthy to be counted in the number 
of them of whom, in the gospel, our Lord Jesus 
Christ made answer, { Whosoever shall do the will 
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my 
mother and my brother. ' 1 How f mother ', unless 
He is daily generated by holy love in the bowels of 
a perfect heart ? See what a Son a pious mother 
can have — that same God, King, Redeemer, in all 
tribulations Consoler. 

" Many are the tribulations of the just, but more 
are the consolations of Christ. By what event of 
secular misery should one be beaten who possesses 
in his breast the source of all consolation, that is, 
Christ indwelling. Nay, rather should such an 

1 Matt. xii. 50. It will be seen that Alcuin does not quote 
exactly. The Vulgate has /rater et sorer et mater. 



ANOTHER LETTER TO ETHELDRYTH. 149 

one rejoice in tribulations, because of the hope of 
eternal beatitude, as the Apostle says, ' By much 
tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of 
God/ and, ' The Lord chasteneth every son whom 
He receiveth '; and of the Apostles He saith, ' They 
departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing 
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for 
His name/ 

"Let your love know that your spiritual Son 
the Lord Jesus is not mortal. He lives, He lives, 
on the right hand of God He lives and reigns. 

" Be not broken clown by the death of your son 
after the flesh, the departure of his body, but 
labour every hour, every moment, that his soul 
may live in happiness with Christ. Let the hope 
of His goodness be your consolation, for many are 
the mercies of God. He has left thee thy son's 
survivor that through thy intercessions and alms 
He may have mercy on him too. It may be that 
he died in his sins, but in the divine pity it may 
be wrought that he live ; for the robber who in 
his wickedness hanged with Christ was saved in 
the mercy of Christ. Mourn not for him whom 
you can not recall. If he is with God, mourn him 
not as lost, but be glad that he has gone before 
you into rest. If there are two friends, the death 
of the first to die is happier than the death of the 
other, for he has one to intercede for him daily 
with brotherly love, and to wash with tears the 
errors of his earlier life. And doubt not that the 
care of pious solicitude which you have for his 
soul is profitable. It profits thee and him. Thee, 
that thou dost it in faith and love; him, that 
either his pain is lightened or his bliss is increased. 



150 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Great and inestimable is the pity of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who would have all men be saved 
and none perish. " 

Our next episode takes us back to York, where 
one of Alcuin's own pupils was elected to the arch- 
bishopric. It may be well to mention here, and to 
dispose of, a curious question which has been raised 
in connexion with Alcuin's studies in the time of 
his youth, pursued as we believe only at York. 

Alcuin is claimed by the Irish as one of the 
many English youths who were brought up in 
Irish monasteries, and they name Clonmacnoise as 
the place of study. Dr. John Healy, the learned 
Roman Bishop of Clonfert, writes thus 1 : — "There 
is fortunately a letter of his still preserved, which 
shows quite clearly that he was a student of 
Clonmacnoise, and a pupil of Colgu, and which 
also exhibits the affectionate veneration that he 
retained through life for his Alma Mater at 
Clonmacnoise/'' But the letter does not bear that 
interpretation, and, indeed, the learned bishop has 
to read Hibernia instead of Britannia in the only 
place where the island of Colgu's home is named, 
or to understand an implied contrast between 
Britain and Ireland which would be too obscure 
E P 1* i n a perfectly simple matter. "I have sent to 
your love", Alcuin says, "some oil, which now 
scarcely exists in Britain, that you may supply it 
where the bishops need it, for the furtherance of 
the honour of God. 2 I have sent also to the 

1 Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum, p. 272. 

2 No doubt oil specially pure, and vegetable ; we may 
safely say olive oil, for purposes of chrism. Theodore of 
Canterbury informs us (Theodore and Wilfrith, S.P.C.K. 



a.d. 790. 



ALCUIN CLAIMED BY THE IRISH. 151 

brethren, of the alms of King Karl 1 — I beseech 
you, pray for him — fifty sicles 2 , and of my own 
alms fifty sicles • to the brethren of Baldhuninga 
to the south, thirty sicles of the alms of the king 
and thirty of my own alms, and twenty sicles of 
the alms of the father of the family of Areida and 
twenty of my own alms ; and to each of the 
anchorites three sicles of pure gold, that they may 
pray for me and for the lord King Charles/'' 

There is nothing here that points to Ireland 
except the name of the person to whom the letter 
is addressed, Colcu, whom Alcuin speaks of as 
" the blessed master and pious father ". The name 
Baldhuninga is very Northumbrian, the home of 
the family of Baldhun. The mention of anchorites 
has been supposed to look like Ireland, but we 
must remember that Alcuin himself, in singing 
the praises of the saints of the Church of York, 
tells of the life of only two persons of his own 
time other than kings and archbishops, and they 
were anchorites. 3 The gift of money from the 
father-of-the-family of Areida clearly comes from 
some one in Gaul who is very closely associated 

p. 180) that " according to the Greeks a presbyter can . . . 
make the oil for exorcism and the chrism for the sick, if 
necessary ; but according to the Eomans only a bishop can 
do so ". Hence the mention of bishops in the letter of 
Alcuin. See also page 245, note 2. 

1 In this case Alcuin writes Karli regis ; in other cases he 
uses the full form Carolus, which comes from rolling the 
r in Karlus. 

2 Shekels. On the argument that the didrachma was the 
shekel in the New Testament the side may be put at 
Is. l\d., but that gives no idea of its purchasing power then, 
which was probably nearer £1. It will be seon that in 
a later sentence sicles of pure gold are specified. 

3 See p. 79. 



152 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

with Alcuin himself. It so happens that the 
Abbey of Tours had a small cell dedicated to 
St. Aredius, and the suggestion may be hazarded 
that the little family of monks there sent through 
their prior the twenty sides which Alcuin doubled. 
It is evident that Colcu had conferred benefits on 
those in whom Alcuin was specially interested, and 
we may suppose that on some visit to Alcuin he 
had delivered a course of lectures by which the 
monks of St. Aredius had profited. He was 
probably a professor (his actual title was lector, 
a name still kept up for a public lecturer at the 
University of Cambridge) at the School of York. 
There was a famous Reader in Theology of the 
same name, or as much the same as any one can 
expect in early Erse, Colgan or Colgu, who lived 
and lectured at Clonmacnoise and died there in 
794, four years after Alcuin wrote this letter at 
the beginning of the year 790. It is of course 
tempting to suppose that this famous Irishman, 
the first Ferlegind or Lector recorded in the Irish 
Annals, was the Colcu to whom Alcuin wrote, the 
Colcu of whom Alcuin in a letter written at the 
end of this same year 790 said that he was with 
him and was well. That letter was addressed to 
one of Alcuin's pupils, Joseph, whose master the 
letter says Colcu had been. On the whole, we 
must take it that our Colcu was too closely 
associated with Alcuin'' s teaching and with North- 
umbria to be the Colgu of whom Bishop Healy 
says that though he was a Munster-man by birth 
he seems to have lived and died at Clonmacnoise. 
But it is another puzzling coincidence that Simeon 
of Durham records the death of Colcu, evidently 



ALCUIN CLAIMED BY THE IRISH. 153 

as of one who had worked in the parts o£ which 
he was commissioned to write, in the year of the 
death of Coign of Clonmacnoise, 794 : c< Colcu, 
presbyter and lector, migrated from this light to 
the Lord/' 

We have a letter of Alcmn's addressed to " the E P- 2l7 - 
most noble sons of holy church, who throughout 792I804 
the breadth of the Hibernian island are seen to 
serve Christ the God in the religious life and in 
the study of wisdom". In this letter Alcuin fully 
recognizes that in the old time most learned 
masters used to come from Hibernia to Britain, 
Gaul, and Italy, and did excellent work among 
the churches. But beyond that, the letter, which 
is far from a short one, is so completely vague 
that it is impossible to imagine that Alcuin had 
studied in Ireland, or had had the help, in England 
or in France, of one of the most famous of Irish 
teachers from one of the most famous of their 
seats of religion "and learning. 

The same impression is given by Alcuin's letter 
to the monks of Mayo, of whom he naturally 
knew more. When the Conference of Whitby 
went against the Scotic practices, Bishop Colman 
retired, first to Iona, then to Inisbofin, and then 
to the place in Ireland now called Mayo, where he 
settled the thirty Anglo-Saxon monks who had 
accompanied him, leaving the Scotic monks, for- 
merly of Lindisfarne, in Inisbofin, "the island of 
the white heifer.'''' Bede tells us that Mayo was 
kept supplied by English monks, so that it was 
called Mayo of the Saxons. Curiously enough 
they kept up the practice of having a bishop at 
their head in succession to their first head, Bishop 



154 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Colman of Lindisfarne. There were bishops of 
Mayo down to 1559. In Alcuin's time Mayo was 
still a Saxon monastery. The Irish Annals of the 
Four Masters mention a Bishop Aedan of Mayo, 
in 768 ; but his real name was English, Edwin, 
not Irish, Aedan, as we learn from Simeon of 
Durham. Alcuin must certainly have mentioned 
his own visit to Ireland in his letter to the monks 
of Mayo, if such a visit had ever taken place. The 
Ep. 276. letter was written late in his life. He tells them 
that when he lived in Northumbria he used to hear 
of them from brethren who visited England. He 
reminds them that for the love of Christ they had 
chosen to leave their own country, and live in a 
land foreign to them, and be oppressed by nefarious 
men. He urged them to keep zealously the regular 
life, as established by their holy predecessors ; and 
to devote themselves to study, for a great light of 
knowledge had come forth from them, and had 
lighted many places in Northumbria. The lord 
bishop they must hold as a father in all reverence 
and love, and he must rule them and their life with 
all fear in the sight of God. 

The story of the migration from Lindisfarne to 
Mayo, as told by Bede (H. E. iv. 4), is so quaintly 
Irish in its main part, that it may fairly be told 
here in Bede's words. After stating that Colman 
took with him all the Scotic monks of Lindisfarne, 
and thirty Saxons, and went first to Iona, he pro- 
ceeds thus : — 

" Then he went away to a small island some 
distance off the west coast of Hibernia, called in 
the Scotic tongue Inis-bofin, that is, the Isle of 
the White Heifer. There he built a monastery, 



MAYO OF THE SAXONS. 155 

and in it he placed the monks of both nations 
whom he had brought with him. They could not 
agree among themselves; for the Scots left the 
monastery when the summer came and harvest had 
to be gathered in, and roamed about through 
places with which they were acquainted. When 
winter came they returned to the monastery, and 
claimed to live on what the English had stored. 
Colman felt that he must find some remedy. 
Looking about near and far he found a place on 
the main land suitable for the construction of a 
monastery, called in the Scots tongue Mageo. 
He bought a small portion of the land from the 
earl to whom it belonged, on which to build, on 
condition that the monks placed there should offer 
prayers to God for him who had allowed it to be 
purchased. With the help of the earl and all the 
neighbours he built the monastery and placed the 
English monks in it, leaving the Scots on 
Inisbofin. The monastery is to this day held by 
English monks. It has grown large from small 
beginnings, and is commonly called Mageo *. All 
has been brought into good order, and it contains 
an excellent body of monks, collected from the 
province of the Angles. They live by the labour 
of their own hands in great continence and 
simplicity, after the example of their venerable 
fathers, under the Rule and under a canonical 
abbat." 

Bede appears to have not known anything of 
a bishop-abbat of Mayo. 

1 As in year the Anglo-Saxon g was pronounced as y, 
hence the name Mayo. In cast Yorkshire a gate is still 
called a yet. 



156 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

It is clear that the bishop-abbat acted as a 
diocesan bishop in the neighbourhood of Mayo. 
In the year 1209 the Irish Annals record the 
death of Cele O'Duffy, Bishop of Magh Eo of the 
Saxons, the name Magh Eo, or Mageo, meaning 
the Plain of Yews. In 1236 Mayo of the Saxons 
was pillaged by a Burke, who "left neither rick 
nor basket of corn in the church- enclosure of Mayo, 
or in the yard of the church of St. Michael the 
Archangel; and he carried away eighty baskets 
out of the churches themselves"". It was for pro- 
tection in such raids that the round towers were 
built adjoining the churches. In 1478 the death 
of Higgins, Bishop of Mayo of the Saxons, is 
recorded. The see was about that time annexed to 
Tuam so completely that the Canons of Mayo 
ceased to have the status of Canons of a Cathedral 
Church. Alcuin used the form Mugeo, not Mageo, 
and Simeon of Durham calls it " Migensis ecclesia ". 
This last form explains the signature — or rather the 
" subscription " — of one of six bishops present at 
a Council under King Alfwold of Northumbria in 
786, " Ego Aldulfus Myiensis ecclesiae episcopus 
devota voluntate subscripsi 1 / J 

See Appendix B. 



CHAPTER IX 

Alcuin's letter to all the prelates of England. — To the 
Bishops of Elmhani and Dunwich. — His letters on the 
election to the archbishopric of York. — To the new arch- 
bishop, and the monks whom he sent to advise him. — His 
urgency that Bishops should read Pope Gregory's Pastoral 
Care. 

Alcuin", as we have seen, felt himself entitled to 
write frankly to persons in the most exalted and 
important positions, though only an abbat. To 
individual bishops and archbishops he wrote very 
frankly, though only a deacon. In his correspon- 
dence with kings and bishops and other persons in 
his native land, we get the impression that he felt 
himself to be in a much larger sphere of operations, 
able to take a much larger view of affairs, than 
from the nature of the case they could be or do. 

Here is a letter which may be taken as a good 
illustration of this remark : — 

" To the most holy in Christ and in all honour Ep. 61 
to be by us beloved, the pontiffs of Britain our A,D# 79G- 
most sweet native land, the humble levite Alchuin, 
a son of the holy church of York, greeting in the 
love of Christ. 

" Having great confidence in your goodness, my 
reverend fathers, and in the acceptableness to God 
of your prayers, and having a convenient oppor- 
tunity for commending myself to your charity as 
a body, I do not neglect the occasion of time and 
messenger. I offer myself to your holiness, suppli- 



158 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

antly praying- each one of you to take me as his 
son for the love and affection of God, and to inter- 
cede along with his fellow- warriors for the safety 
of my soul. For I also, according to the ability of 
my littleness, am a devoted interceder for your 
honour and success. 

" Let your affection know that the lord Charles 
the king greatly desires the supplications of your 
holiness to the Lord, alike for himself and the 
stability of his realm and for the spread of the 
Christian name, and for the soul of the most 
reverend father Adrian the Pope, for faithfulness 
of friendship towards a dead friend is most highly 
approved. 

u One who intercedes for such a friend no doubt 
greatly enhances his own merits with God. The 
aforesaid lord king for the furtherance of this his 
petition has sent to your holiness some small gifts 
of blessing. 1 I pray you to accept with gladness 
what he has sent and to do faithfully what he asks 
of you ; that the faith of your goodness may meet 
with a great reward from God, and the religion of 
humbleness may be widely praised among men. 

" O my most holy fathers and shepherds, O most 
clear light of the whole of Britain, feed the flock 
of Christ, which is with you, by assiduous preaching 
of the Gospel and good example of holy life. 
Preach with truth, correct with vigour, exhort 
with persuasion. Stand with your loins girt in 
the army of Christ, and your lights burning, that 
your light may shine before all who are in the 
house of God, that they may see your good works 

1 The passage is incomplete, but this is the sense of it. 



ALCUIN S LETTERS TO ENGLISH PRELATES. 159 

and glorify our Father which is in Heaven. The 
time of labour here is exceeding short, the time 
of reward is the longest eternity. "What is happier 
than to pass from this present misery to eternal 
bliss. See to it diligently that the land which 
our ancestors received by the gift of God may by 
celestial benediction be preserved to our descendants. 
The increase of the flock is the reward of the shep- 
herd, the safety of the people the praise of the 
priest. Let all intemperance and injustice be pro- 
hibited, all honesty and sobriety be taught, that 
in every walk of life the God Christ be honoured, 
and His blessed grace keep you in every part to 
the praise and glory of His name for ever. 

" That you may be sure this comes from us, we 
have sub-sealed it with our seal. 

1 ' The blessing of God the Father in the grace 
and love of Christ and in the consolation of the 
Holy Spirit be with you and keep you in all good, 
my lords most holy, my fathers most worthy of 
honour, mindful of us for ever. Amen."" 

That is a remarkable conclusion to a letter from 
a deacon in France to the Archbishops and Bishops 
of all England. 

The following letter is written in a slightly 
humbler style. It was probably written towards 
the end of his life. 

" To the most holy and venerable fathers the Ep. 230 
Bishops Alchard [Elmham, 786-811] and Tifred $'£_ m 
[Dunwich, 798-816] Alchuin the levite sends '* 
greeting. 

" I pray your most pious goodness that you take 
not this letter from so small a man to be pre- 
sumptuous. It is in reliance on your regard that 



160 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

I have dared to write. Christian humility should 
despise none, but should receive benignantly all in 
the pious bosom of love. This love I trust will 
abundantly show itself forth in you by the Holy 
Spirit, that, as the Truth saith in the Gospel, out 
of your belly may be seen to flow rivers of living 
water, that is, of sacred doctrine. 

" It is yours to preach to all the word of God, 
to all to shine clear in the house of God, that all 
may recognize through you the light of truth and 
may be led through the pastures of perpetual 
beatitude. Your mouth must be the trumpet of 
the God Christ, for the tongues of your authority 
are the keys of heaven, having power to open 
and to shut; to open to the penitent, to shut 
against those that resist the truth. Wherefore 
make yourselves by your good lives worthy of such 
excellence ; knowing that assiduity in preaching is 
the praise of bishops. The episcopal honour is 
no secular play. The Christian bishop must exer- 
cise himself with great diligence in the commands 
of God, that by example and word together he 
may educate a Christian people. 

"The venerable brother the abbat Lull 1 has 
spoken to me in praise of your good conversation. 
It is on this account that I have cared to commend 
myself as a suppliant to your sanctity, that you 
may order some slight memorial of my name to 
be made throughout your churches. Not for my 
own merits but for the love of Christ I have pre- 
sumed to make this earnest request. Pray grant 
it, as I trust in your good piety. 

1 This is not Lull of Malmesbury, who was so great a help 
to Boniface ; he died an archbishop in 787. 



ALCUINS LETTER TO EANBALD I. 161 

ff May the Lord God increase you by the grace 
of merits, and make you to advance in all holiness 
and in preaching the word of God, my most dear 
and longed-for fathers/'' 

We saw in the previous chapter something of 
the anxiety which Alcuin felt when he marked 
the misdeeds of Northumbrian kings. There was 
another source of anxiety which troubled him in 
his thoughts of his native land, in the year 795. 
The old Archbishop of York, Eanbald I (780-796) 
could evidently not last much longer, and Alcuin 
feared that the general decadence had reached the 
ecclesiastics of York, and that some improper 
appointment might be secured by simoniacal 
methods. 

To the old Archbishop himself he wrote an 
affectionate letter, as follows : — 

" To my lord best loved of all health eternal in Ep. 36 
Christ. A - D - 795 - 

" I confess myself greatly rejoiced to hear from 
Eanbald \ of your household, of the soundness of 
your prosperity, so greatly desired by me. The 
love and faith which began long ago to dwell in 
my breast will never be able to leave me. The 
nearer the time of heavenly reward comes, the 
more careful should he be who is the first to leave 
the world that he has left in the world a friend. 
The sharpness of fever, and the delay of the king 
[Karl] in Saxony, has prevented my coming to 
you as I have desired to do. May the divine 
clemency grant to me to see thy face in joy before 
I die. If I come, I earnestly hope that I shall 

1 A presbyter, who succeeded his namesake in the arch- 
bishopric. 

M 



162 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

find you still in that honourable place of dignity 
in which you were when I left. And if some 
other dignity has been preferred by you/ I hope 
that you will not by any means allow violence to 
be done to the Church of Christ, and that the 
brethren may be left free to elect as your suc- 
cessor the best man, in the fear and by the grace 
of God most high. For in the sacred canons 
a terrible anathema is uttered against those who 
do any violence to the Church of Christ. You 
have always loved our [ecclesiastical] family of 
York and have done them very many kindnesses. 
We now need your help more than ever; and 
when our time of eternal rest has come, you will 
have us as perpetual intercessors in your behalf. 

" May the divine clemency grant to thee pros- 
perous and happy days in this life, and glory 
eternal with His saints, my dearest lord and 
father." 

Eanbald contemplated abdication in the end of 

795, and Alcuin wrote the following anxious letter 

to the brethren of York, on whom the choice of 

a new archbishop would fall : — 

Ep. 37 u To my best-loved friends, greeting. 

a.d. 795. c<1 beg of y0Uj by the £ait]l of love ^ that y 0U 

act faithfully and wisely in the election of a 
pontiff, if the election must take place before 
I come. Again and again I call upon you, in the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you by no 

1 We cannot imagine another dignity open to an aged 
Archbishop of York to be preferred to that which he already 
held. But it is evident that Alcuin referred to his retire- 
ment upon an abbacy, which would set him comparatively 
free from calls for exertion. 



ELECTION OF EANBALD II. 1G3 

means allow any one to obtain the bishopric by 
the heresy of simony ; for if that takes place, it 
is the complete perdition of the race. This 
simoniacal heresy is that worst of heresies which 
the holy Peter condemned with an eternal 
anathema [Acts viii. 14, 20, seq.] . He who sells 
a bishopric grains gold and loses the kingdom of 
God. 

i( Up to this time, the holy Church of York has 
remained untainted in its elections. See that it 
be not tainted in your day. If, which be far 
distant, it loses its ecclesiastical reputation, I fear 
that you will lose the eternal kingdom. Judas 
sold the spouse, that is, Christ. And he that sells 
Christ's spouse, that is, the Church, is guilty of 
the same crime; for Christ and the Church are 
one body, as saith the Apostle 1 . He who sells 
the Church must of necessity be outside the 
Church ; and he who is outside the Church, where 
will he be but with the devil in eternal de- 
struction. Pear not, hate not, him who speaks 
to you the truth; for to this which I say, the 
books sent forth by the Holy Spirit testify. My 
desire is that you be without stain in the sight of 
God; that you reign felicitously in this present 
world, and rejoice for ever with Christ. Live and 
be strong and happy in Christ/' 

Eanbald I did not abdicate. He died on 
August 10, 796, and the electors immediately 
proceeded to the election, their choice falling upon 
Eanbald II. The election was so hasty that 
Eanbald II was consecrated five days after the 
Archbishop's death. 

1 Eph.v. 23. 
M 2 



164 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

This is Alcuin's letter to the new Archbishop : — 
Ep. 72 " To his best-loved son in Christ, Eanbald the 

a.d. 796. Archbishop, his in all things devoted father 
Albinus sends greeting. 

" Laud and honour to the Lord God omnipotent 
who hath preserved my days in prosperity, so that 
I can rejoice in the exaltation of my dearest son ; 
and have been allowed, though the lowliest servant 
of the Church, to train up one of my pupils to 
be regarded as worthy to become a dispenser of 
the mysteries of Christ and to labour in my stead 
in the Church where I was nourished and in- 
structed; and to preside over those treasures of 
wisdom of which my beloved master Helbrecht 
left me his heir. I must pray with all intentness 
the divine clemency that he may be my survivor 
in this life as he was my solace alway in the time 
of his obedience; not that I wish for my own 
death but that I desire that his life should be 
prolonged. For not sons to fathers but fathers 
to sons should leave an heritage. 1 

"See, my dearest son, by God's favour you 
have all that man could hope for, and more than 
all that our small desert dared hope for. Now, 
then, act as a man and a strong man. The work 
of God which is put into your hands do to the 
full, for the profit of your own soul and the welfare 
of many souls. Let not your tongue cease from 
preaching ; nor your foot from going about among 
the flock committed to you ; nor your hand from 
labouring that alms be given and the holy Church 

1 It has been supposed that Alcuin refers to some purpose 
of bequeathing the library of York to Eanbald II. 



ALCUINS LETTER TO EANBALD II. 165 

of God be everywhere exalted. Be the outward 
expression of the well-being of all. In thee let 
there be the example of most holy manner of life ; 
in thee let there be the solace of the miserable ; 
in thee the strengthening- of the doubting; in 
thee the rigour of discipline ; in thee the con- 
fidence of truth ; in thee the hope of every good. 
Let not the pomp of the world lift thee up ; nor 
luxury of food enervate thee; nor the vanity of 
vestures make thee soft; nor the tongues of 
flatterers deceive thee ; nor the gainsaying of de- 
tractors disturb thee; nor troubles break thee; 
nor joys lift thee up. Be not a reed shaken by 
the wind ; be not a flower falling w 7 ith the gale ; 
be not a tottering wall ; be not a house built upon 
the sand ; but be the temple of the living God, 
built on the firm rock, whose indweller be the very 
Spirit, the Paraclete. 

" How many days do you suppose you have to 
live ? Put it in your mind at fifty years. Even 
that has its end ; and you cannot expect to live so 
long as that. Let the weakness of your body make 
you strong in soul ; be with the Apostle, — ' when 
I am weak, then am I strong.' Let the affliction of 
your body be the gain of your soul. Show yourself 
gentle and humble to the better; hard and rigid 
to the proud ; all things to all men that you may 
gain all. Have in your hands honey and worm- 
wood ; let each man eat which he chooses. Let 
him who would live on pious preaching have the 
honey ; let him who needs hard invective drink of 
the wormwood, but so that he may hope for the 
honey of pardon to follow, if the blush and con- 
fusion of penitence go before/'' 



166 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Alcuin would have been an excellent man to have 
as preacher at the consecration of a bishop. 

In a letter which quickly followed, Alcuin begged 
Eanbald to read frequently the above letter, and 
expressed the hope that if there was anything in it 
which could be regarded as less than quite affec- 
tionate, the Archbishop would feel sure that it was 
unintentional. One thing, and only one, he wished 
to add : — 
Ep. 73 " Do not allow the nobleness of mind which I so 

a.d. 796. we ji k now to be in you, and the integrity of faith- 
fulness which is your wont to all, by any advice of 
friends, by any ambition of secular desires, to be 
corrupted or changed. Not every friend is fit to 
be an adviser ; the Scripture 1 says, Let thy friends 
be many, thine adviser one only. Do not allow 
your goodness to be clouded by the wickedness of 
others/'' 

In yet another letter he finds a good deal to 
add : — 
Ep. 74 " If there is joy over a rise, there is fear for 

a.d. 796. a f a ll : the loftier the position, the more dangerous 
the fall. According to your appellation be the chief 
overseer not only of the flock committed unto thee, 
but also of thyself, that in a few days of labour you 
may earn a great reward of bliss. 

"These are dangerous times in Britain. The 
death of kings 2 is a signal of misery. Discord is 
the road to prison. The things which you have 
very often heard our master Archbishop Albert pre- 
dict are hastening to come true. 

1 Ecclus. vi. 6. 

2 Ethelred of Northumbria was killed and Offa of Mercia 
died in this year 796. 



A THIRD LETTER TO EANBALD II. 167 

"Be not covetous of gold and of silver but of 
gain of souls. Me remember daily in prayers and 
alms, thyself always in keeping of the command- 
ments of God. If storms threaten on every side, 
steer manfully the ship of Christ, that in time you 
may arrive with your sailors at the port of pro- 
sperity. Let your tongue never be silent from the 
word of holy preaching, your hand never be be- 
numbed from good work. 

(< Let not your mind become soft in adulation of 
princes or slow in correction of those under you. 
Let not the flatteries of the world deceive you, the 
transient honours uplift, the favour of the people 
subvert you. Be a very firm pillar in the house of 
God, not a reed shaken with the wind. Be a candle 
set on a candlestick, not hid under a bushel. Be to 
all a way of salvation, not an artery of perdition, 
that by thee very many may be corrected and saved, 
and with thee may attain unto eternal life. 

" Wherever you go, let the Pastoral treatise of 
the blessed Gregory go with you. Bead it, re-read 
it, very often, and see in it yourself and your work, 
that you may always have before your eyes how 
you ought to live, how you ought to teach. It is 
a mirror of a bishop's life, and a specific against all 
the wounds of the devil's fraud." 

Late in Alcuin's life, he became very anxious 
about the conduct of this favourite pupil, Arch- 
bishop Eanbald II. Five years after the election 
he wrote two letters on the subject, one direct to 
the Archbishop, and one to two monks whom he 
sent to visit and advise him. To Eanbald he writes 
as to one in tribulation, the kino: Eardulf being set E P- 173 

A T> SOI 

against him. " But " 9 he says, " I think that a part ' ' 



168 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

of your tribulation arises from yourself. It may be 
that you shelter the enemies of the king, or protect 
their possessions. If you suffer justly, why be 
troubled ? If unjustly, why not call to mind the 
Saints ? As the apostle James says 1 — f Ye have 
heard of the tribulations of Job, and have seen the 
end of the Lord/ " 

In this letter he goes no further into detail, re- 
marking at its close that the Cuckoo will say more. 
The Cuckoo was one of his messengers, Cuculus, 
whom he calls in his playful way the bird of spring, 
the name being the Latin word for a cuckoo. To 
the Cuckoo, then, and the presbyter Calvin, he 
sends a letter of instructions. 

il I have heard of the tribulations of my dearest 
son Simeon [that is, Eanbald]. You are to exhort 
him to act faithfully and be not pusillanimous in 
trials. His predecessors suffered such ; and not 
they only but all the Saints. John Baptist, we 
read, was slain for testifying to the truth. Let the 
archbishop see to it that there is in him no cause of 
trial other than his preaching the truth. I fear 
that he is suffering for his acquisitions of lands, or 
his support of the enemies of the king. Let what 
he has suffice him; let him not grasp at what 
belongs to others, which often turns out to be very 
dangerous. 

" And why is there in his following such a large 
number of soldiers ? He appears to keep them from 
pity for their condition. But it is harmful to the 
inhabitants of the monasteries which receive him 

1 James v. 11. Our version would have suited the occasion 
better than the Vulgate, "Ye have heard of the patience of 
Job." 



POPE GREGORYS PASTORAL CARE. 169 

and his. He has, as I hear, far more than his 
predecessors had. And his soldiers have under them 
far more of a lower class than is necessary. My 
master [Archbishop Albert] allowed none of his 
followers to have more than one such under him, 
except the rulers of his household, and they were 
only allowed two. It is imprudent charity to help 
a few, and they perhaps criminals, and to harm 
many and they good men. Let him not blame me 
for suggesting this, but amend his conduct." 

Alcuin had in the previous year, 800, written Ep. 149. 
a letter to the Cuckoo's colleague, Calvinus, in 
which he was very urgent that Eanbald II should 
have the best spiritual advice. He entreats Calvinus 
to warn him of perils, and to strengthen him in all 
good ways. In giving advice to the archbishop, he 
bids Calvinus <c consider sagaciously time, place, and 
person ; at what time, in what place, to what person, 
what should be said by the archbishop ; all which 
can be best learned in the book of the blessed 
Gregory on the Pastoral Care ". 

Alcuin frequently presses upon his correspondents 
the value of a careful study of Pope Gregory's 
treatise on Pastoral Care. It was this book that 
King Alfred selected to have translated into Eng- 
lish for the benefit of the clergy of England. 
Inasmuch as Alfred was born only fifty years after 
the death of Alcuin, there is no great improbability 
in the idea that Alcuin's influence in regard of this 
book survived to Alfred's time. The fact that it is 
chiefly on English bishops that he urges its frequent 
study may point in this direction. It was, how- 
ever, not always the English bishops who received 
this advice. 



170 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Ep. 71 To Arno, Bishop of Salzburg, Alcuiii wrote a 

a.d. 796. long and very valuable letter of advice as to the 
manner in which the Huns whom Karl was con- 
quering should be brought to the faith. He speaks 
strongly of the necessity of adapting the teaching 
and discipline to the character of each individual, 
as also of each race. 

" There be some infirmities which are better 
treated by sweet potions than by bitter; others 
better by bitter than by sweet. Whence a teacher 
of the people of God, while he ought to shine 
clear with all the lights of virtues in the house of 
God, should specially excel in the utmost sagacity 
of discretion. He should know what treatment best 
suits the sex, the age, the aim, even the occasion, 
of each person. All which the blessed Gregory, the 
most lucid doctor, in his book on the Pastoral Care 
has most diligently investigated, has adapted to 
various persons, has driven home by examples, has 
made sure by the authority of the divine scriptures. 
To the study of which book I refer you, most holy 
prelate ; beseeching you to have it very frequently 
in your hands as a manual, to keep it in your 
heart." 

To Higbald of Lindisfarne he writes : — 
Ep. 81 " Read very often, I beseech you, the book of 

a.d. 797. £ ne bl essec l Gregory, who brought the Gospel to 
us, on the Pastoral Care, that in it you may learn 
the peril of the episcopal office and may not forget 
the reward of him who serves the office well. Let 
that book be very often in your hands, let its 
points be firmly fixed in your memory, that you 
may know how a man should attain to the office 
of a bishop, and, having attained, with what 



POPE GREGORYS PASTORAL CARE. 171 

circumspection he should guide himself, how 
exemplary his life should be, how earnest his 
preaching. The author of the book has also given 
the most discreet advice as to the different ways 
of dealing with persons of different characters. " 



CHAPTER X 

Summary of Alcuin's work in France. — Adoptionism, 
Alcuin's seven books against Felix and three against 
Elipandus. — Alcuin's advice that a treatise of Felix be sent 
to the Pope and three others. — Alcuin's name dragged into 
the controversy on Transubstantiation. — Image-worship. — 
The four Libri Carolini and the Council of Frankfurt. — The 
bearing of the Libri Carolini on the doctrine of Transub- 
stantiation. 

Having seen something in detail of the earnest- 
ness and faithfulness of Alcuin's exhortations to 
the kings and bishops of his native land of England, 
and having learned from them to how sad a state 
things had fallen, especially in Northumbria once 
the nursery of saints, we must now turn to Alcuin's 
work on the continent of Europe. 

It may be well to state again the leading dates. 

Ethelbert, or Albert, master of the School of 
York and afterwards archbishop, took Alcuin with 
him as a tonsured youth on one of his visits to 
France and Home, and on that occasion he appears 
to have studied for a short time in French monas- 
teries. The first letter of his that has come down 
to us is a letter to the abbat of St. Martin at Tours, 
where he was destined to spend the latest years of 
his life, about a fugitive monk whom he had res- 
cued ; it was written some eight years before he 
first settled in France. On his return from this 
journey he was ordained deacon by Albert, pro- 
bably in 768, when he would be about thirty-five 
years of age. He was sent again to Italy by 



ALCUINS WORK IN FRANCE 173 

Albert, on a mission to Karl, the king of the 
Franks, and it would appear that Karl noticed him 
favourably. All this time he was working hard 
as master of the School of York. In 780 the new 
archbishop of York sent him late in the year to 
Rome for the pallium, and on his way back he 
again met Karl, at Parma, and Karl asked him to 
settle in France. He obtained leave of absence 
from York, and joined Karl in 782. His definite 
work was to govern the school at which the youths 
at the court of Karl, including Karl's own sons, 
were taught ; the king himself often being present 
as a learner. He then planned for Karl a number 
of schools in various parts of the country, all based 
on the model of the Palace school, which he had 
organized on the plan of the School of York. Then 
he took in hand the correction of the service-books, 
which had become seriously debased by ignorant 
copyists ; his liturgical work produced such an 
effect that the service-books of the Middle Ages 
owed more to Gallican than to Roman influences. 
Tradition tells us that Alcuin himself wrote the 
Office for Trinity Sunday, at that time not fixed as 
now to a particular day. He found that the Holy 
Scriptures themselves had become debased by the 
same process of ignorant copying of manuscripts, 
and in his later years he was set by Karl to take 
seriously in hand the revision of the Scriptures. 
From 790 to 792 he had lived in Northumbria ; 
but the aggression of heresy in Karl's dominions 
had called him away again, and he had never re- 
turned. He was about fifty-eight years old when 
he finally left England, and he died in 804, at the 
age of sixty-nine. 



174 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

The tendency towards attempting- to define and 
explain the method in which Almighty power con- 
ducts its operations was a marked tendency of 
Alcuin's time. He combated it, on sound principles. 
The whole matter, for example, of the union of the 
two natures in Christ, he reminded his readers, 
was supernatural; therefore, it could not be fitly 
measured by human analogies. To deny the per- 
fect union of the two perfect natures in one Person 
was to impugn the Divine omnipotence ; to claim 
to understand and to define the method and manner 
of the union was to impugn the infiniteness of the 
mystery. 

It was to this tendency to inquire into and seek 
to fathom divine mysteries that the controversy 
about transubstantiation was due. That contro- 
versy came into being a full generation after the 
death of Alcuin ; and one of the most prominent 
opponents of any approach to a materialistic view 
of the manner of the Real Presence was a pupil of 
Alcuin's, E-abanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz. 

The heresy which reached such dimensions as to 
call Alcuin back from England to France was the 
heresy known as Adoptionism. It became pro- 
minent in the same manner, from the same ten- 
dency to pry into the divine secrets of operation, 
as did the theory of transubstantiation. The point 
was, how exactly did the human nature of the Son 
come into union with the divine nature? The 
answer given by Felix, Bishop of Urgel in Cata- 
lonia, was this — by adoption. Hence he and his 
followers were called Adoptionists. 

The term Adoption had been applied to the In- 
carnation by some early Fathers, and indeed in the 



ADOPTIONISM. . 175 



Spanish Liturgy, which Felix naturally used. It 
was used probably as equivalent to assumption — 
He took upon Him — that is, assumed — our flesh. 
This use of the word Adoption in their liturgy led 
Felix and his followers to take a large step beyond 
the equivalence to assumption. They carried it to 
its full meaning in ordinary affairs, and declared 
that the divine nature of the Second Person of the 
Trinity adopted the human nature into sonship, as 
Son. The so-called Athanasian Creed has in our 
English form, " by taking the manhood into God." 
In the original Latin the word "assumption" is 
used, assumptione hwmanitatis in Ileum, 1 

Catalonia was at that time a part of Karl's do- 
minions, and therefore he could operate upon Felix. 
But Elipandus, who supported Felix, was bishop 
of Toledo and primate of Spain under the Moham- 
medan dominion, and thus was beyond the reach 
of Karl. He was a man who, in his letters at least, 
used very abusive language. 

The Adoptionists held that it was a confusion 
of the two natures in Christ to say that Christ 
was proper and real Son of God not only in his 
Godhead but in His whole Person. The highest 
that could befall humanity, they maintained, was 
to be adopted into sonship with God ; therefore 
Christ's humanity is adopted into sonship. This 
adoption had three stages they said; the first at 
the moment of conception, the second at His 
baptism, the final stage at His resurrection. The 

1 In the older MSS. in Deo, which has a subtle unin- 
tentional bearing on the controversy with which we are 
dealing ; unintentional if, as seems certain, we possess MSS. 
of the Athanasian symbol of a date earlier than the be- 
ginning of the heresy of Felix. 



176 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Adoptionists professed to deny that they were 
Nestorians, that is, that they divided Christ into 
two Persons ; but it was urged against them that 
if they did not divide Christ into two persons, 
their theory did, when it was pressed to its neces- 
sary consequence. That is the history of the 
origin of many of the heresies. 

Various measures had been taken against the 
heresy of the Adoptionists, both by Karl and by 
the Pope, Adrian. In course of time Karl sent 
the treatise of Felix to Alcuin, who was at the 
time in England, and Alcuin returned to France, 
never again to visit his native country. Simeon 
of Durham tells us that the English bishops made 
him their representative for the refutation of Felix. 
As such, probably, in part, but also by the special 
wish of Karl, he attended the Council of Frankfort 
in 794, and though only a deacon, argued against 
Felix. Felix was condemned. Alcuin's argument 
was at Karl's request or command developed into 
a treatise in seven books ; and he wrote also a 
treatise in three books against Elipandus. 

We have these ten books. They fill 220 very 
closely printed columns in Migne's series. The 
books against Felix are among the best and most 
independent of Alcum's dogmatic work. 

This by no means ended the matter. In the 
year 798 Karl sent to Alcuin a treatise by Felix, 
which he desired Alcuin to refute. Alcuin's reply 
has been the subject of so much controversy that 
it will be well to give it as literally as possible. 
The point is, the place assigned to the Pope as 
a judge of doctrine. I only quote that part of the 
very long letter. 



ALCUINS PROPOSAL TO CONSULT THE POPE. 177 

" I beseech you, if it please your piety, that Ep. 100. 
a copy of the treatise be sent to the apostolic lord Jul y> 798 - 
[that is of course the Pope] and another to Paulinus 
the patriarch [of Aquileia] ; similarly to Richbon 
[of Treves] and Theodulf [of Orleans] bishops, 
doctors, and ministers; that they may (singuli) 
severally answer for themselves. 1 Your Flaccus 
[Alcuin] labours with you in giving account of 
the catholic faith. Allow him sufficient time to 
consider with his pupils, quietly and carefully, the 
opinions of the Fathers, what each has said on 
such views as this subverter has set forth in his 
book. Then, at a time appointed by you, let the 
answers of the above several persons (singulorum) 
be brought to you. And whatever of opinion or 
of meaning in that book is found to be contrary 
to the catholic faith, let it be overthrown by 
catholic quotations. And if the writings of all 
[of the above] sound forth equally and concordantly 
in profession or defence of the catholic faith, it 
will be clear that one spirit speaks through the 
voice and heart of all ; but if anything diverse 
is found in the words or the writings (dictis vel 
scrijrfis) of any one of them, let it be judged which 
is most in accord with sacred scripture and the 
catholic fathers, and give the palm to him who 
is most firm in the divine evidences." 

1 The punctuation is that of Wattenbach and Duinmler. 
Migne puts a full stop after the Pope and another after the 
Patriarch : this would seem to make singuli refer to two 
persons only, the two bishops. The Roman controversialist 
makes a different punctuation, putting a full stop after the 
Pope and running the three others together. The whole 
passage ought to be read in the Latin without any 
punctuation. Sec Appendix C, p. 319. 
N 



178 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

It seems to be perfectly clear that Alcum's plan 
was that he and his students should draw up a 
chain of passages from the Fathers, such as that 
which at an earlier stage he had himself sent to 
Felix ; 1 that in this way they should spend the 
time till Karl had got answers by letter, or by the 
mouth of a messenger, or even at a personal inter- 
view, from each of the four, Pope, patriarch, and 
two bishops ; and then that all the answers should 
be tested by the passages extracted from the 
writings of the Fathers. There is not the slightest 
sign of Pope Hadrian having a preponderant voice, 
or a voice on a doctrinal question more authoritative 
than that of the learned Bishop of Orleans. But 
if, as the Roman controversialist endeavours to 
maintain, the Pope was not included in the curious 
competition, and only the three others were to be 
counted, that is worse still for the position of the 
Pope ; for Alcuin and Karl were to settle the 
matter without paying any attention to the Pope, 
indeed without considering anything that he might 
say. The Roman controversialist has to play tricks 
with the punctuation and with the Latin to separate 
off the Pope from the patriarch. There was no 
punctuation 2 in the letter, we must suppose ; those 
who wrote in Latin as good as Alcuin's could make 
a sentence clear in its meaning without commas 
and semicolons ; and if the passage is read without 
stops the Pope is included, as he is also with any 
punctuation other than that of the Roman contro- 
versialist. But, as I have said, if he was included 
with the other three he was given a full chance of 

1 Ep. 30, a.d. 793. 2 But see p , 283. 



TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 179 

making his opinion felt on equal terms with that 
of each of the others ; if he was not included, the 
verdict was to be final without him. 

Alcuin is drawn by the Romans into the contro- 
versy on Transubstantiation, which, as we have 
seen, had not commenced in his time. In a letter 
to Paulinus, the Patriarch of Aquileia, dated about 
787, he requests his correspondent not to forget 
him in his prayers. tc Store up my name in some Ep. 11. 
treasure-house of your memory, and bring it out at Jul F> 786 - 
that fitting time when you have consecrated the 
bread and wine into the substance of the body and 
blood of Christ/'' If that expression had been used 
after the long controversy on the subject, it would 
have been very much more important than at most 
it is. But it comes nearly fifty years before the 
controversy was raised by Paschasius Radbert of 
Corbie in his treatise Be Corpore et Sanguine Domini 
(a. d. 831). Paschasius wrote that after consecra- 
tion <( there is nothing but the Body and Blood of 
the Lord"", a material statement which Ratramn 
at once controverted. It w r as Ratramn's treatise, 
denying the carnal presence and maintaining a 
spiritual view, that had a dominant influence on 
Ridley and Cranmer. The more subtle refinement 
of the schoolmen of later times, which we know as 
transubstantiation, avoids the blunt materialism of 
Paschasius by distinguishing between an essential 
and a non-essential element of an existence such as 
that of bread ; giving to the essence which cannot 
be apprehended by the senses the name of substance, 
and to the non-essential the name of accident. The 
change effected by consecration did not, in their 
view, affect the non-essential, the accident, the 
N 2 



180 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

part that can be perceived by the senses ; it affected 
only that which can not be so perceived, the essen- 
tial, the substance. But all this is very far beyond 
any point which had been reached in Alcuin's time, 
or was reached for some long 1 time after him. From 
him we do not hear anything of substance and 
accident, of essential and non-essential. He pre- 
sumably used the expression quoted as a simple and 
strong statement of his belief in a very real presence, 
which he and the men of his time unquestionably 
held, but did not attempt to define. 

We have an interesting opportunity of realizing 
the true feeling of leading personages of Alcuin's 
time in this matter of the Presence in the Eucharist, 
just where we might not have expected to find it, 
namely, in the controversy on the use of images, 
of which we must now see something. The Holy 
Eucharist is used as an illustration in this contro- 
versy. The Synod of Constantinople, which decided 
that the images of the Saviour must be destroyed, 
declared that the Eucharist is the only true image 
of the Saviour; meaning that the union of the 
divine grace with the earthly elements represents 
that union of Godhead and manhood in His Person 
which images failed to convey, inasmuch as images 
of the Lord could only set forth His humanity. 
The objection was raised by the opposition Council 
of Nicaea that none of the Fathers had applied the 
term imago to that which is His Body and His 
Blood ; but otherwise they did not raise objection 
to the force of the comparison. If the modern 
Roman doctrine had been held by either side in the 
controversy, it must have shown itself in a declara- 
tion that a comparison was impossible, on the 



CONTROVERSY ON IMAGES, 181 

ground that the consecrated elements actually are, 
by a change of substance, that which an image 
can never be, namely, the very Body and Blood of 
Christ. The controversialists of the time would 
certainly have brought out, in one form or another, 
this vital point, if they had held it or even had 
only heard of it. 

The controvers}^ about images is so entirely a part 
of general Church History, that our mention of it 
must be only in relation to the part which Alcuin 
played in it. In the year 754 a Council at Con- 
stantinople had decreed the abolition of images, and 
this decree was carried out with terrible cruelty 
towards those who defended the images. In the 
year 787 a Council was held at Nicaea to re-establish 
the use of images of the Saviour and the Blessed 
Virgin, of angels and of saints, whether in painting 
or in mosaic or in any other suitable material, as 
objects of reverence, not as objects of that worship 
which is due to God alone. This decision restored 
peace between the East, which had previously con- 
demned images, and the West, which had retained 
their use. The Pope, Adrian, sent the decrees to 
Karl, no doubt expecting that he would accept 
them. It was never quite safe to expect that Karl 
would do what he was expected to do. 

The subject was not a new one among the 
Franks. They had held a mixed assembly of clergy 
and laity under Karl's father in 767. There were 
present representatives of the then Pope, Paul I, 
and the iconoclast Emperor Constantine ; and it is 
supposed that the decision, which is not recorded, 
was in accordance with the national feeling. That 
national feeling was guided by abhorrence of the 



182 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

abominations of the idol-worship of the pagans by 
whom they were surrounded. Karl himself strongly 
shared this feeling. He sent the decrees, which the 
Pope had sent to him, to Alcuin, who, as we have 
seen, was then in England. Alcuin made remarks 
on them in a letter, out of which grew a treatise in 
four books called the Libri Carolini, the chief author 
of which was Alcuin, who was no doubt assisted by 
other ecclesiastics. Probably Karl himself kept his 
hand upon the work up to the time of its publica- 
tion. The general line of the treatise is that images 
are useful for ornament and historical remembrance, 
and therefore they must not be destroyed ; but wor- 
ship of them must not be required. We must bear 
in mind that the word image means any kind of 
representation, the Nicaean Council of 787, as we 
have seen, specifying paintings and mosaics. One 
of the points on which these Caroline Books con- 
demn the iconoclasts is, that they do not distinguish 
between images and idols ; but this is a less grave 
mistake, the Caroline Books declare, than that com- 
mitted by the Nicaean Council, in confusing the use 
of images with the worship of them. The former 
error is attributed to ignorance ; the latter — it was 
a severe remark considering that the Pope had for- 
warded the decrees — is attributed to wickedness. 
It may be well, in this connexion, to recall the fact 
that the imago, the image of our Lord, which was 
carried in procession by Augustine and his monks 
at their interview with Ethelbert of Kent, was not 
an idol, but a painting on a tablet 1 . We of the 
Church of England keep this meaning of imago, 

1 Bede i. 25, "Imaginem Domini salvatoris in tabula 
depictam." 



COUNCIL OF FRANKFORT. 183 

in the allowance of paintings and mosaics in our 
churches, quite separate from the idea of an idol, 
which we disallow. 

Adrian made a long but feeble reply to the 
Caroline Books. The great Frankish Council of 
Frankfort, in 794, which had the double character 
of an imperial diet and an ecclesiastical synod, and 
was presided over by Karl in person, held in strong 
terms the views of the Caroline Books ; indeed, it 
appears to be far from certain that they were pub- 
lished before the Council was held. Alcuin, though 
he had not proceeded beyond deacons'' orders, was 
admitted to the Council on account of his learning. 
The Council spoke with contempt of the Greek 
synod ; showed no regard to the .Roman view ; 
refused both adoration and service of all kinds to 
images. It was a tremendously independent blow 
to the Pope as an arbiter of faith and morals. But 
Karl was much too important a person in the eyes 
of the Pope to be quarrelled with, and Adrian re- 
mained on excellent terms with him. Adrian died 
in 796, when his successor Leo sent the keys of the 
Confessio of St. Peter and the standard of the City 
of Rome to Karl, and begged him to send some of 
his chief men to Rome, to bind the people of Rome 
by oath to subjection and fidelity to the Pope. 

These Caroline Books are so important in their 
unexpected bearing on the current belief on the 
nature of the real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, 
that we must look into their phrases with some 
little care. 

In the second book of the four Libri Carolini 
Karl deals with the question of the adoration of 
images. In the twenty-seventh chapter he argues 



184 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



against the temerity and absurdity of those who 
presumed to compare, as of equal importance, 
images and the Body and Blood of the Lord. 
He quotes these absurd persons as saying that 
" as the Body and Blood of the Lord passes across 
from the fruits of the earth to a remarkable 
mystery, so images pass across to the veneration 
of the persons whom they represent ". No one of 
Karl's arguments against this parallel or equiva- 
lence gives the slightest indication of a belief or 
idea on his part that in consecration there is a 
change of substance. He says, "The sacrament 
of the Body and Blood of the Lord is effected by 
the hand of the priest and the invocation of the 
divine name to the commemoration of His passion 
and to the grant to us of our salvation by the 
same mediator between God and men " ; whereas 
images are completely made by skilled workmen, 
&c. For the consecration, the vested priest, 
mingling the prayers of the people standing round 
with his own prayers, with groaning of spirit 
makes memorial of the Lord's Passion, of His 
resurrection from the dead, and of His most 
glorious ascension into Heaven, and entreats that 
these may be borne to the sublime altar of God 
by the hands of an angel and into the sight of 
His Majesty ; the painter of images merety looks 
out a suitable place to execute his works, and 
paints them that they may look beautiful. Thus 
any one who attempts to compare on equal terms 
images and the Body and Blood of the Lord 
strays very far from the path of truth, of reason, 
and of discrimination. The commemoration of 
His most sacred Passion is not in the works of 



IMAGES AND THE EUCHARIST. 



artificers, but in consecration of His Body and 
Blood. That elect vessel Paul the Apostle says 
that the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood 
is not to be put on an equality with all sacraments, 
but is to be set before almost all sacraments, 
when he says, He that eats and drinks unworthily 
eats and drinks his own damnation. Nothing of 
that kind is said of those who will not adore 
images. Karl sums up the discussion by stating 
concisely ten points of vital difference between the 
Lord's Supper and images. For our present 
purpose we need only take the ten points as they 
relate to the former. Our purpose is to consider 
how far the points stated can indicate a belief 
in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and how far 
they square better with that reticent doctrine of 
a Real Presence which is consistent with the 
formularies and the services of our own most truly 
Catholic Church of England. These are the ten 
points : The Sacrament of the Lord's Body and 
Blood (1) is effected by the invisible operation of 
the Spirit of God ; (2) is consecrated by the priest 
by the invocation of the divine name; (3) is 
carried by angel hands to the sublime altar of 
God : (4) by it sins are remitted ; (5) it has no 
growth or diminution of power; (6) it is con- 
firmed by new antiquity and ancient newness ; (7) 
it is the life and the refreshment of souls; (8) it 
leads by eating thereof to the entrance of the 
heavenly kingdom ; (9) it cannot be abolished 
from the Church by persecution: (10) without 
reception of it no one is saved. 



CHAPTER XI 



Karl and Rome. — His visits to that city. — The offences and 
troubles of Leo III. — The coronation of Charlemagne. — The 
Pope's adoration of the Emperor. — Alcuin's famous letter to 
Karl prior to his coronation. Two great Roman forgeries, 
the Donation of Constantine and the Letter of St. Peter to 
the Franks. 



We must now turn to the connexion of Karl 
with Rome, and especially to Alcuin's advice to 
him in the matter of declaring himself or being 
declared emperor. It is a highly noteworthy fact 
that the Englishman Boniface was the most 
trusted counsellor of Charlemagne's father Pepin 
at the time when it was proposed to raise him 
from Mayor of the Palace to King of the Franks, 
and that Alcuin the Englishman was the most 
trusted counsellor of Charlemagne himself, when 
it was under consideration that he should be raised 
or should raise himself from King of the Franks 
to Emperor of the West. 

In 773 Pope Adrian had invited Karl to come 
to Italy and rid him of the oppressions of the 
Lombards. The Pope's messenger could not get 
through by land, by reason of the Lombard power, 
and he went by sea. Karl agreed to do as the 
Pope asked. He went with all his force to 
Geneva, There he divided his army into two 



KARLS VISITS TO ROME. 187 

parts, sending his uncle Bernard with one portion 
by the Mons Jovis (the great St. Bernard, called 
the Mount of Jove because of the statue of Jupiter 
Peninus placed at its summit) and himself went 
by the Mont Cenis. The two parts joined at 
Clusae on the south side, between Susa and Turin, 
and proceeded to the siege of Pavia, the Lombard 
capital. Karl spent his Easter at Borne, and on 
his return to Pavia took the city and captured the 
king with his family and treasure. 

At this visit he was received at Borne with the 
highest honours. In return, he confirmed and 
enlarged the donation of Pepin his father, adding, 
it is said, large parts of Italy — indeed, almost the 
whole peninsula. He laid the deed of gift on the 
tomb of the Apostle Peter. 

Karl visited Borne again in 781, and it is this 
visit that from one point of view most concerns us, 
for it most concerned the course of Alcum's life. 

Karl had been to Borne again in the year 787, 
to visit Pope Adrian and settle terms with the 
Duchy of Beneventum. He had purposed to 
devastate the duchy, its bishoprics, and its mona- 
steries ; but in council with his bishops and chief 
men he determined to accept hostages, including 
the two sons of the hostile Duke, who did not 
himself dare to see the angry face of Karl. Karl 
completed his visit by adoring the tombs of the 
blessed Apostles, and paying there his vows ; an- 
other sign that the great object of visits to Borne 
was to visit the tombs of the twin princes of the 
Apostles, Peter and Paul. He then returned to 
Prance and rejoined his wife Fastrada, his sons 
and daughters, and his court, at Worms. 



188 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

The all-important visit to Rome came at the 
end of the year 800. Pope Leo III, elected in 
795, had been seized in the spring of 799 by his 
opponents, among whom two nephews of the late 
Pope, Adrian, played a leading part, and an attempt 
had been made to put out his eyes and cut out his 
tongue. He recovered 1 and escaped, and was called 
— or fled — to Karl at Paderborn. Leo had on his 
consecration sent to Karl, as the Patrician, the 
standard of Rome, the keys of Rome, and even the 
keys of the tomb of St. Peter, in recognition of his 
supremacy, the Eastern Emperor Constantine VI 
being disregarded. Karl was therefore doubly 
bound to take cognisance of the Pope's case. There 
were very grave charges against Leo. Alcuin 
names 2 adultery and perjury ; but he writes very 
strongly against subjecting Leo to trial on these 
charges. He has read, he says, that by a canon of 
the blessed Silvester there must be not less than 
seventy-two adverse witnesses of blameless life if 
a pontiff was to be brought to trial. He has read 
in other canons that the Apostolic See judges, is 
not judged. What pastor, he asks, in the Church 
of Christ can be immune, if he who is the head of 
all the churches is overthrown by malefactors ? 

We may compare with this the reasons which 
another member of the trilogy of Anglo-Saxon 
ecclesiastics and scholars, St. Aldhelm, gave at 
Rome against condemning the Pope of his time, 
Sergius, for alleged immoral practices. The reasons 
were three. First, it was a wretchedly base thing 

1 The historian-monk of St. Gallen says that his new eyes 
were better than his old ones, both for use and to look at. 
3 Ep. 120, to Arno. 



CHARGES AGAINST LEO III. 189 

to suspect their own pontiff of crimes. Next, 
what influence could the Roman pontiff have with 
the Britons and other nations across the seas, if he 
was attacked by his own citizens ? Lastly, it did 
not seem likely, it could not be true, that one who 
remembered that he was set over the whole world 
would entangle himself in such a sin as this. 
Unhappily, for long periods in the history of the 
Papacy, it not only was likely, it was undoubtedly 
and overtly true. 

Leo was received by Karl with great honour, 
and was sent back to Rome to resume his high 
office. Karl followed him * towards the end of the 
next year, 800, and was received by him at the 
twelfth milestone from Rome "with the greatest 
humility and the greatest honour '\ This was on 
November 23. The next day Leo with great 
pomp received Karl on the steps of the basilica of 
St. Peter, made an oration to him, and led him 
into the church. Seven days later, on December 1, 
Karl convoked an assembly, and expounded to 
them his reasons for coming to Rome, the first and 
most difficult being the need of a judicial inquiry 
into the charges against the Pope. It turned out 
that no witness appeared to substantiate the 
charges; but that seems to have been regarded 
as insufficient, and a formal abjuration was made 
by Leo. The Pope, Eginhart 2 says, in the pre- 
sence of all the people, in the basilica of the blessed 
Peter the Apostle, carrying in his hands the Gospel, 
ascended the ambo, and invoking the name of the 

1 The account which follows is taken from the con- 
temporary annals of Eginhart. 

2 Under the year 800. 



190 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Holy Trinity, purged himself by oath from the 
crimes laid against him l . 

On the most sacred day of the Nativity of the 
Lord, Karl attended Mass at St. Peter's. As he 
rose from prayer before the Confessio 2 of the 
Apostle, Leo placed on his head a crown, the whole 
Roman people acclaiming — cf To Charles Augustus, 
crowned by God the great and pacific Emperor of 
the Romans, life and victory ! " After which the 
Pope adored him, that is, prostrated himself before 
the emperor and kissed his feet, as had been the 
custom with the former emperors. The title of 
Patrician was abandoned, and Charlemagne became 
Imperator and Augustus. 

This is not the occasion for discussing the 
debated question whether the Pope acted on an 
impulse of gratitude, or was guided by a desire 
to interpose the most powerful personage in the 
West between Rome and the Emperor of the East ; 
or the equally debated question whether Karl was 
an active and understanding receiver of the new 
burden of honour and responsibility ; or the ques- 
tion what sort of right the Pope had to take such 
a step. To my mind the most pointed question is 
whether the Pope skilfully forestalled Charles by 
suddenly crowning him, in order to prevent his 
making himself emperor and crowning himself. 
But we cannot pass by without a word of com- 
ment the remarkable fact that the Pope performed 

1 The actual words are given by Baronius, but with 
a vague reference to his authority. They are given at 
length by Milman, Hist. o/Lat. Christianity, ii. 205. 

2 The ordinary word for the crypt or other receptacle of 
the body of a saint. 



CHARLEMAGNE ADORED BY THE POPE. 191 

the barbaric, Byzantine, humiliating, ceremony of 
prostration before the emperor and kissing his feet 
in adoration, as earlier Popes had had to do to 
earlier emperors. It is this same barbaric custom 
of what is technically called adoration, that the 
Popes, who used to perform it to their imperial 
superiors, have now for some centuries expected 
others to perform to them — the kissing of the 
Pope's toe as it is called by some, of the Pope's 
foot by others. The state of the foot of the great 
bronze figure of St. Peter in his church at Rome 
certainly renders the former the more accurate 
phrase. 

It is clear that Karl had for many months been 
carefully considering the question of assuming the 
imperial crown in asserted succession to the Em- 
perors of the West, who had come to an end three 
centuries and a half before. 

This is the letter which Alcuin wrote to Karl 
at this most critical point in the history of Europe, 
a letter which has been described as the most 
important of all which Alcuin is known to have 
written. His remark that Karl's position was Ep. 1 1 1. 
higher and his power for good greater than that 
of the Emperor of the East and that of the Pope, 
has been understood to mean that Karl would do 
well to restore in his own person the Empire of 
the West, so as to be supreme in title as well as in 
fact. The date is May 799. 

" To the peace-making Lord David the king, 
Flaccus Albinus greeting. 

" We give thanks to thy goodness, most clement, 
most sweet David, that thou hast deigned to have 
in mind our littleness, and to note down for us 



192 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



that which thy faithful servant hath told us by 
word of mouth. And not for this only do we give 
continual thanks to thy piety, but for all the boons 
which thou hast conferred upon me from the day 
on which my littleness became known to thee. 
Thou didst begin with the very best for me, thou 
hast gone on to better still. Wherefore with con- 
tinual prayers I pray the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that having granted thee all that is best in 
earthly felicity, He may deign to grant to thee 
eternally the far realms of everlasting beatitude. 

" If I were present with thee I would urge very 
many things on thy venerable dignity, if oppor- 
tunity were afforded for thee to hear and for me 
to speak. For the pen of love is often wont to 
stir the deep things of my heart, to treat of the 
prosperity of thy excellency, the stability of the 
kingdom to thee by God given, and the profit of 
the holy Church of Christ. The Church is per- 
turbed by the multiform wickedness of evil men, 
and stained by the nefarious attempts of the vilest, 
not of ignoble persons only, but of some also among 
the greatest and highest. This is matter for deep 
fear. 

" Up to this time, there have been three loftiest 
persons in the world. One, the apostolical sub- 
limity, which is wont to rule by vicarial office the 
see of the blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles. 
What has been done against him who has been 
the ruler of that see, thy venerated goodness has 
taken care to make known to me. Another, the 
imperial dignity and secular power of the second 
Home. How impiously the governor of that empire 
has been deposed, not by those of another race, but 



193 



by his own people and fellow citizens, is becoming 1 
known everywhere. [This was Constantine VI, 
Emperor of the East, who had been affianced to 
Karl's daughter Rotrudis some eighteen years 
before, but had been forced by his mother Irene to 
break the contract. In 797, two years before 
Alcuhr's letter, Irene had deposed him and put 
out his eyes ; she was now reigning alone.] The 
third is the royal dignity, in which the dispensa- 
tion of our Lord Jesus Christ has placed thee, 
more excelling in power than the other dignities 
named, more clear in wisdom, more sublime in 
dignity of reign. Lo, on thee alone the whole 
safety of the churches of Christ has fallen and 
rests. Thou art the punisher of crimes, thou the 
guide of the erring, thou the consoler of them that 
mourn, thou the exalter of good men. 

i ' Is it not the case that in the see of Rom e, 
where the greatest piety of religion once shone 
clear, the very worst examples of impiety have 
burst forth into view ? They themselves, blinded 
in their own hearts, have blinded their own Head. 
There is not seen there fear of Grod, or wisdom, 
or love : what good thing can be there if nothing 
of these three is found there ? If there had been 
fear of God they would not have dared, if there 
had been wisdom they would never have wished, 
if there had been love they would by no means 
have done, what they have done. These are the 
perilous times, foretold of old by the very Truth, 
because the love of many grows cold. 

" The care of the head must never be neglected ; 
it is a less evil that the feet suffer than the head. 

" Let peace be made with those wicked Saxons, 
o 



194 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

if that can be done. Let threats be to some extent 
relaxed, so that men may not be hardened and 
driven away, but may be kept in hope until by 
wholesome counsel they be brought back to peace. 
Hold on to what has been won from them, lest if 
they are allowed to gain a little, the larger part be 
lost. Keep safe your own sheep-fold, that the 
ravening wolf devour not it. Let such labour be 
spent on outside affairs that no loss be suffered in 
your own affairs. Some time ago I spoke to your 
piety about the exaction of tithes : that it is de- 
cidedly better to abstain from the exaction, even 
for a considerable time, until the faith has got its 
roots fixed in the hearts, if indeed that Saxon land 
be held worthy of the choice of God. Those who 
have gone away were the best Christians, as is 
well known ; and those who remained have con- 
tinued in the dregs of wickedness. For by reason 
of the sins of the people, Babylon has become the 
habitation of devils, as it is said in the prophets. 

" None of these things can have been overlooked 
by thy wisdom ; for we know how well learned 
thou art in the sacred scriptures and in secular 
histories. From all of these full knowledge has 
been given to thee by God, that by thee the holy 
Church of God among a Christian people may be 
ruled, exalted, and preserved. What reward may 
be given by God to thy best devotion, who is able 
to say ? For eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the 
things which God hath prepared for them that 
love him/'' 

Alcuin ends his letter with a pair of hexameters 
and some elegiacs, both because Karl was interested 



THE DONATION OF CONSTANT1NE. 195 

in his versification, and — we may suppose — because 
high-flown compliments, from which Karl was 
not averse, come better in so-called poetry than 
in prose. 

" From lofty heaven may Christ in mercy mild 
Thee rule, exalt, defend, adorn, and love. 

The holy stars of the sky, the grasses of the green earth, 
All things together cry, May David prosper alway. 

The earth and the sky and the sea, the men and the birds 
and the beasts, 
Cry with concordant voice, Father be it well with thee." 

As we are dealing with the relations of the 
Papacy with the Franks, it may be well to say 
here something that ought to be said about the 
demands of the Popes for money and territories. 
The two demands which may on the whole be 
called the most monstrous of all the long series, 
were made, the one probably, the other certainly, 
in Alcuin's time : one by Hadrian, to influence 
Karl, the other by one of his predecessors to influ- 
ence Karl's father, Pepin. 

A ridiculous document was produced by the 
Popes, probably about the middle of this eighth 
century, with which we are dealing. It was called 
the Imperial Edict of Donation. Its alleged author 
was Constantine the Great. It professed to give 
to Silvester, the Bishop of Rome in Constantine's 
time, and to his successors, the Imperial Palace 
(that is, the Lateran) and the City of Rome ; all 
the provinces, districts, and cities of the whole of 
Italy ; and, in the Latin copy of the forgery, all 
islands. The islands are absent from the Greek 
copy of the forgery. It was on the strength of this 
forged donation of islands that a later Hadrian, 
2 



196 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

the one English Pope, Hadrian IV, professed to be 
the owner o£ Ireland, and gave it to our king 
Henry II just four centuries after the time with 
which we are dealing. Muratori was of opinion 
that this audacious forgery was concocted between 
755 and 766, that is, when Alcuin was from twenty 
to thirty years of age, and while Offa was king of 
Mercia. In 774, when Karl had conquered the 
Lombards, he went to Rome, as we have seen ; 
ratified the donation of his father Pepin, of which 
we must next speak, and laid the deed of donation 
on the altar or on the tomb of St. Peter in the 
ancient basilica of St. Peter. The original deed 
of Karl's donation has, so far as is known, long 
since perished ; its terms are at best only vaguely 
known. It is said to have comprehended the whole 
of Italy, the exarchate of Ravenna, from Istria to 
the frontiers of Naples, and the island of Corsica. 
Karl, then, ratified the forged Donation of Con- 
stantine, at that time a quite recent forgery. The 
whole story, however, is very vague, and historians 
differ considerably in the deductions which they 
draw from the inadequate records. They differ 
almost more widely as to the date at which the 
document was first brought forward, the dates 
ranging from 760 to 1105. Of the fact of the 
forgery there is no question ; it cannot be denied, 
and so far as I know no one of the Romans now 
is bold enough to deny that it is a forgery. There 
is one point in the forgery which has an important 
bearing on a very important question, namely, the 
true basis of the reputation of the city of Rome 
as the chief ecclesiastical centre of the Church of 
the West. Constantine is made to declare, in this 



THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE. 197 

forged donation, that it was by the merits of St. 
Peter and St. Paul that he emerged from the font 
at baptism cleansed of his sins. More than that, 
he is made to declare that he makes this enormous 
donation to the blessed chiefs of the Apostles, 
Peter and Paul, and through them to Silvester, the 
Bishop of Rome. Either, then, at the time of the 
forgery it was completely recognized as a fact that 
the Popes claimed their sovereignty on the twin 
authority, in the twin name, by the twin prince- 
ship, of Peter and Paul; or it was completely 
recognized at the time of the forgery that in the 
earliest times, and notably in the time of Con- 
stantine the Great, whose baptism took place in 
the year 337, Rome did base its claims to pre- 
eminence on its possession of the relics of St. Peter 
and St. Paul, and on the twin supremacy of those 
two princes of the Aj)Ostles, and, therefore, that it 
might stand the test of the touchstone of history, 
it was essential to use the twin names of Peter and 
Paul ; if it had been Peter alone, it would have been 
detected as a forgery. See Appendix D. 

When we come to the document which was pro- 
duced for the purpose of influencing Pepin, Karl's 
father, we pass out of the atmosphere of vagueness, 
and find ourselves face to face with a scandalous, 
an impious, fact. Pope Stephen II 1 , who held the 
Papacy from 752 to 757, was reduced to extremities 

1 Stephen I was Pope 252 to 257. Another Stephen was 
elected on March 14, 752, but died before his consecration. 
On March 26, 752, the Stephen here spoken of was elected. 
He is thus more properly called Stephen II than Stephen III ; 
and Stephen IV, who appears in Karl's time, should be 
called Stephen III. Many writers, however, call them 
Stephen III and Stephen IV. 



198 ALCUIN OF YOEK. 

by the arms of the Lombard kings of North Italy. 
He went in person to Pepin, king of the Franks, 
to entreat him to come over and succour the city 
of Rome and the domain of St. Peter. To show 
how difficult it is to be sure about facts of history 
when the chroniclers have a partisan bias, it may 
be mentioned that the Italian chronicler states that 
Pepin went to meet Stephen, and on meeting him 
dismounted from his horse, prostrated himself on 
the ground before the Pope, and then walked to 
the royal residence by the side of the Pope's palfrey. 
The Frankisk chroniclers say that the Pope and his 
clergy, with ashes on their heads and sackcloth on 
their bodies, prostrated themselves as suppliants at 
the feet of Pepin, and would not rise till he had 
promised his aid against the Lombards. 

The king lodged Stephen in the monastery of 
St. Denys for the winter, and well on into the 
next summer. There Stephen was attacked by an 
illness so dangerous that his recovery was regarded 
as a miracle, due to the intercessions of St. Dionys, 
St. Peter, and St. Paul ; where again we notice the 
twinship of St. Peter and St. Paul as regards the 
protection of the Pope, with the local saint added. 
After the return of the Pope to Rome, he was be- 
sieged by the Lombard king, who vowed not to 
leave him a scrap of territory the size of the palm 
of his hand. The Pope sent to Pepin a letter of 
entreaty and threat. The king, he said, hazarded 
eternal condemnation. He had vowed to secure to 
St. Peter the vast donation to which reference has 
been made, and St. Peter had promised to him 
eternal life. If the king was not faithful to his 
word, the Saint kept firmly the donation, as it 



LETTER FROM ST. PETER TO THE FRANKS. 199 

were the sign manual of: the king, and this he 
would produce against him at the day of judge- 
ment. 1 The envoys came late in the year, and the 
king could not conduct an army into Italy in the 
winter. In February, 755, or a little earlier, 
Stephen wrote another letter, with a literally awe- 
full account of the horrors of the siege, which had 
then lasted fifty-five days. He conjured Pepin to 
come and help, " by God and his holy Mother, by 
the powers of the heavens, by the apostles Peter and 
Paul, and by the last day/ 5 The collocation and 
the order of these adjurations is significant. Still 
Pepin did not come. The Pope then resorted to 
the blasphemous proceeding which it has seemed 
necessary to describe. We may suppose that the 
Poise's metaphorical statement — that St. Peter bad 
Pepin's sign manual to a document which would be 
produced against him at the day of judgement — 
had suggested to the harassed mind of the Pope 
the idea that an immediate letter from St. Peter 
himself would be more effective than the threat to 
produce signatures at the day of judgement ; and 
that if the letter was addressed to the Franks at 
large, and not as the former letter to Pepin and 
his sons, the whole nation would be terrified into 
prompt action. However that may have been, a 
letter 2 was written with the heading : " Peter, 
called to be an Apostle by Jesus Christ the Son of 
the living God . . . and [after a long paragraph] 
Stephen the prelate of the catholic and apostolic 
Roman Church, ... to the most excellent kings 
Pepin, Charles, and Carloman, with all the bishops, 

1 Labbe, Concil. xii. 539. 2 Labbe, Ooncil. xii. 543. 



200 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

abbats, priests, and all monks; all judges, dukes, 
counts, military officers, and the whole people of 
the Franks." The letter begins with the words 
" Ego Petrus Apostolus ", I, Peter the Apostle. In 
it St. Peter adjures those whom he addresses to 
rescue Rome from the Lombards, making a special 
appeal that his own body, which suffered torture 
for the Lord Jesus Christ, may be preserved from 
desecration. "With me," he proceeds, "the Mother 
of God likewise adjures you, and admonishes and 
commands you, she as well as the thrones and 
dominions and all the host of heaven, to save the 
beloved city of Rome from the detested Lombards. 
If ye hasten, I, Peter the Apostle, promise you my 
protection in this life and the next ; I will prepare 
for you the most glorious mansions in heaven ; 
I will bestow upon you the everlasting joys of 
paradise. Make common cause with my people of 
Rome, and I will grant whatsoever ye may pray 
for. I conjure you not to yield up this city to be 
lacerated and tormented by the Lombards, lest 
your own souls be lacerated and tormented in hell 
with the devil and his pestilential angels. Of all 
nations under heaven, the Franks are highest in 
the esteem of St. Peter; to me you owe all your 
victories. Obey, and obey speedily, and, by my 
suffrage, our Lord Jesus Christ will give you in 
this life length of days, security, victory; in the 
life to come, will multiply His blessings upon you, 
among His saints and angels." That little sum- 
mary is only about a twelfth part <»f the length of 
the letter itself. 

The letter brought Pepin with a great host ; he 
overcame the Lombard king ; and he bestowed on 



LETTER FROM ST. PETER TO THE FRANKS. 201 



the Pope as a donation, by right — it would appear — 
of conquest, not only what are called the States of 
the Church, but also — and that in the teeth of the 
ambassador of Constantine Copronymus, the Em- 
peror of Constantinople, who demanded its restora- 
tion to the Eastern Empire — the whole exarchate of 
Ravenna. Thus it was that the Pope became a 
temporal sovereign over vast portions of Italy. 
St. Peter's letter was probably the most important 
letter never written. 



CHAPTER XII 

Alcuin retires to the Abbey and School of Tours. — Sends 
to York for more advanced books. — Begs for old wine from 
Orleans. — Karl calls Tours a smoky place. — Fees charged 
to the students. — History and remains of the Abbey Church 
of St. Martin. — The tombs of St. Martin and six other 
Saints. — The Public Library of Tours. — A famous Book of 
the Gospels. — St. Martin's secularised. — Martinensian 
bishops. 

As time went on, Alcuin felt that he must with- 
draw from the varied and heavy work which he 
was accustomed to do at the court, whether at 
Aachen or elsewhere, and must retire to work 
quietly at one of his abbeys. He obtained the 
king's leave 1 . In 796 he wrote to inform Karl 
that he had, in accordance with the king's wish, 
opened the school at Tours ; that he must send to 
York for books ; and that he hoped the king would 
order the palace youths to continue to attend the 
palace school which he had now left. 
Ep. 78 " I, your Flaccus, in accordance with your desire 

a. d. 796. an( j good pleasure, am busy with ministering, under 
the roof of the holy Martin, to some the honey 2 of 
the holy Scriptures; others I seek to inebriate 
with the old wine of ancient disciplines; others 
I shall begin to nourish with the apples of gram- 
matical subtlety ; some I purpose to illumine with 
the order of the stars, as the painter nobly adorns 
the roof of the house of God. I become very many 

1 See p. 26. 

2 The district was rich in wine, fruit, flowers, and honey. 



ALCUIN SENDS TO YORK FOR BOOKS. 203 

things to very many men, that I may educate verj- 
many to the profit of the holy Church of God and 
the honour of your imperial realm, that no grace 
of Almighty God in me be unemployed, and no 
part of thy bounty be without fruit. 
m " But I, your poor servant, need some of the more 
abstruse books of scholastic learning which I had 
in my own land by the devoted labour of my 
master x , and to some extent of myself. I say 
this to your excellency that you may be pleased 
to allow me to send some of our young men to 
pick out what I need, and bring to France the 
flowers of Britain ; that not in York only there 
may be a garden enclosed 2 , but in Tours also the 
scions of paradise may bear fruit ; that the south 
wind may come and blow through the gardens by 
the river Loire, and the spices thereof may flow 
out. I take as a parable of the acquisition of 
wisdom the exhortation of Isaiah 3 , ' Ho, every 
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he 
that hath no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, 
come, buy wine and milk without money 4 and with- 
out price/ Your most noble mind knows well 
that there is nothing loftier that can be acquired 
for a happy life, nothing more joyous as an exer- 
cise, nothing stronger against vices, nothing more 
laudable in all dignity. As the philosophers have 
told us, there is nothing more necessary for the 
ruling of a people, no better guide of the life to 
the very best principles, than the glory of wisdom, 
the praise of discipline, the efficacy of learning. 

1 Archbishop Albert of York ; see p. 84. 

2 Solomon's Song, iv. 12-v. 2. 3 Isaiah, lv. 1 
1 But see p. 209. 



204 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



To the earnest study and daily exercise of wisdom, 
exhort, O king, the youths of your excellency's 
palace, that they may so advance while in the 
bloom of youth that they may be held worthy to 
bring to honour their grey hairs, and by wisdom 
may attain to perpetual happiness. To sow the 
seeds of wisdom in these parts, I, so far as my 
poor intellect enables me, shall not be found slack. 
In the morning of life, in the vigour of study, 
I sowed in Britain ; now, my blood running cold, 
as in the evening of life, I cease not to sow in 
France. To me, shattered in body, an expression 
of the holy Jerome, in his letter to Nepotianus, 
is a solace : e Almost all the powers of the body 
are changed in old men. Wisdom alone continues 
to increase; all the rest decrease.'' And a little 
further on he says. f The old age of those that 
have trained their youth in honourable arts, and 
have meditated in the law of God day and night, 
grows more learned with age, more expert with 
use, more wise with the process of time ; it gathers 
the very sweetest fruits of former studies/ " 

The brethren of St. Martin of Tours had not 
a high character for propriety of conduct. There 
are many evidences of this. It is interesting to 
know that the earliest letter of Alcuin to which 
we can reasonably assign a date is a letter appealing 
for a lapsed brother of this same abbey of St. 
Martin of Tours, over which Alcuin was now 
called to preside as an old man. The abbat to 
whom Alcuin addressed this letter was Wulfhard, 
of whom the life of Hadrian I, as printed by 
Muratori (iii. 1, 184, Tier. Ttal, Script,), states that 
he was sent along with Albinus, that is, Alcuin, to 



ALCUIN AT TOURS. 205 



Hadrian, by Karl in 773. 1 The letter was probably 
written in 774. 

" To the pious father Uulfhard the abbat Ep. 1 
Albinus the humble levite wishes health. A,D - 774 - 

" I found this poor lamb wandering through the 
rough places of neglect. Moved by pity, I brought 
him by sedulous admonition to the home of our 
discipline,, binding up his wounds, pouring in wine 
and oil. To your piety, gentlest of fathers, I send 
him back, beseeching you to receive him for the 
love of Him who, amid the joy of the angels, has 
brought back on His own shoulders into the home 
of His delights all of us, who were wandering 
among the precipices of sins. Do not in austerity 
repel from thee one whom Christ has for pity 
gathered back to Himself, nay, has met penitent, 
has ran to and embraced, has brought back to 
the house of feasting. And if any envious man 
advise you to reject him, let such an one fear lest 
he himself be rejected by Him who has said, 
' With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured 
to you again/ . . . And though he have sinned 
ten times, have not we sinned an hundred times ; 
and though he owe an hundred pence, do we- not 
owe ten thousand talents ? . . . " 

Alcuin had a high regard for the wines of the 
Loire, and he particularly liked them old. The 
best wine of that time would appear to have been 
grown about the city of Orleans, and to have 

1 There are great difficulties in the way of accepting this 
statement of a mission by Karl in 773. The passage 
calls Albinus deliciosus ipsius regis, and is quoted by Du- 
cange as an evidence of the use of the word. It appears 
to imply a more intimate acquaintance than at that early 
date there can have been. 



206 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

been kept under the charge of the Bishop of 
Orleans as the chief owner of the terraced lands 
on which the vines grew. 1 Here is a frolicsome 
letter about a present of wine from Orleans. It is 
full of quotations from the Song of Songs applied 
to local conditions, for the most part rather obscure. 
When he comes to his concluding words, there is 
no obscurity in his request that if wine is coming, 
good old wine may be sent. 

" To Theodulf, bishop of Orleans. 

" To the great pontiff and father of vineyards, 
Teodulf 2 , Albinus sends greeting. 

" We read in the Chronicles 3 that in the time 
of David, the king most loved of God, Zabdi was 
over the wine-cellars of the vineyards. Now, by 
the mercy of God, a second David [Karl] rules 
over a better people, and under him a nobler 
Zabdi [Theodulf] is over the wine-cellars of the 
vineyards. The king has brought him into the 
house of wine and set over him the banner of love, 
that students may stay him with flowers and fill 
him full of the apples of them that languish with 
love, 4 that is, love of that which maketh glad the 
heart of man. 

1 In modern times, better wine is grown near Tours than 
near Orleans. The wines of Vouvray, for example, beyond 
Marmoutier, are much esteemed. A waiter at Tours concedes 
that wine is still grown at Orleans, mais ims cle specialtfc 
comme ici. 

2 The spellings of ordinary names are varied in those times 
almost at will, and it is interesting to note how often the 
letter h plays a part in the variation. 

3 1 Chron. xxvii. 27. 

4 Song of Songs, ii. 4. Alcuin takes on the whole the 
Vulgate version. It will be seen by reference to the text and 
margin of the Authorised and the Kevised Versions that there 



ALCUINS REQUEST FOR WINE. 207 

" Now even though there be a lack of that which 
strengthens, namely bread, there is perhaps no lack 
of that which maketh glad, namely wine, in the 
cellars of Orleans ; for our hope is set on a thriving 
vineyard and not on a fig-tree dried up. Where- 
fore Jonathan, the counsellor of David, a man of 
letters, 1 sends unto Zabdi, saying : Let us get up 
early : let us see how well the vineyard of Sorech 
thrives : to them that chant the treaders' cry 
therein the streams of the cellarer are dispersed 
abroad. But now that the storehouse is opened 
with the key of love, let this verse be sung by the 
ruler of the vineyard in the towers of Orleans : 2 
Eat with me, my friends; drink, and drink 
abundantly : come ye and take wine and milk 
without price. My throat is as the best wine 
meet for the drinking of my beloved, to be tasted 
by his lips. I am my beloved's and my beloved 
is mine. 

" It must not be replied — I have put off my 
coat, how shall I put it on ? I have washed my 
feet, how shall I defile them ? 3 I cannot rise and 
give to thee. 4 If by chance the three loaves are 
not at hand, which were lacking in the store- 



is much variety in the rendering of the Hebrew, especially 
as regards the word here rendered " flowers ". The Septua- 
gint gives a sixth meaning, " perfumes" or il unguents". 

1 1 Chron. xxvii. 32. Alcuin makes here an unusually 
bold use of Scripture, first in taking to himself the de- 
scription of David's uncle, Jonathan, and then in putting 
into his mouth a cento of phrases from Judges xvi. 4, 
Jer. xlviii. 33, Prov. v. 16. 

2 This song is built up from Song of Solomon vii. 12, 
v. 1, 2, vii. 9, vi. 3, and Isa lv. 1. 

3 Song of Songs v. 3. ' Luke xi. 5, 7. 



208 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

houses of Gibeon, 1 by the blessing of Christ the 
seven water-pots are full of the best wine, which 
has been kept till now. Who does not know that 
some of this wine, according to the command of 
the Virgin's Son, 2 is to be borne to the ruler of the 
feast of the city of Tours ? But remember this : 
You must not put new wine into old skins. No 
one, having drunk old wine, straightway desireth 
new ; for he saith — The old is better. 

" Blessed is he that speaks to an attentive ear/' 
Tours was not in Alcuin's time the bright place 
which it is now. When Karl endeavoured to per- 
suade Alcuin to accompany him to Rome in 779, 
Alcuin begged that he might be excused. The 
journey was long, and he wished to remain at 
Tours. It is evident that Karl in his reply spoke 
of the splendours of Rome and contrasted them 
with u the smoky dwellings " of Tours. 

This is what Alcuin had said to the king : — 
Ep. 118 "Now about that long and laborious under- 

a. r>. 799. taking of going to Rome. I cannot in any way 
think that this poor little body of my frailty — 
weak and shattered with daily pains — could ac- 
complish the journey. I should have earnestly 
desired to do it, if I had had the strength. I there- 
fore entreat the most clement benevolence of your 
paternity that you leave me to aid your journey by 
the faithful and earnest prayers of myself and of 
those who with me serve God at St. Martin's." 

Karl's answer we have not got. Alcuin's re- 
joinder to it contains this passage : — 
Ep. 119 "With regard to that with which it is your will 

1 2 Sam. xxi. 1, 2. 

- This appears to be going beyond a joke. 



a. d. 799. 



ALCUINS PREFERENCE FOR TOURS. 209 

to upbraid me, that I prefer the houses of Tours, 
sordid with smoke, to the gilded citadels of the 
Romans, I know that your prudence has read that 
elogium of Solomon's, ' it is better to dwell in 
a corner of the house-top, than with a brawling 
woman in a wide house \ 1 

" And, if I may be pardoned for saying it, the 
sword hurts the eyes more than smoke does. For 
Tours, content in its smoky houses, by the gift of 
God through the providence of your goodness 
dwells in peace. But Rome, which is given up to 
fraternal strife, ceases not to hold the implanted 
venom of dissension, and now compels the power 
of your venerated dignity to hasten from the sweet 
dwellings of Germany to restrain this pernicious 
plague/'' 

From the foundation of the School of Tours, 
the students paid fees. The great endowments of 
the abbey, much enlarged by Karl in 774 when he 
granted to Abbat Wulfhard a large amount of 
property in the neighbourhood of Pavia, do not 
appear to have been applied to the maintenance of 
the School. A change was made about forty years 
after Alcuin, and then the education of the school 
was given free. We learn that after Alcuin's 
death the school continued to flourish under Abbats 
Wulfhard II, Fridugisus, and Adalard, the masters 
of the school receiving stipends from the fees of 
the students. This " mercantile " arrangement was 
hateful to Abbat Adalard, and the change came in 
his time, and by his order ; but it was not financed 
from the regular income of the abbey. The master 

1 Prov. xxv. 24. 

p 



210 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

at the time was Amalric, who afterwards became 
Archbishop of Tours, dying in 855. He gave to 
the abbey from his own private property certain 
funds for the payment of the teachers, and in 
August, 841, it was decreed that the schooling 
should be free. Amalric had many students under 
his tuition who rose to important positions, of 
whom Paul the Archbishop of Rouen, and Joseph 
the Chancellor of Aquitaine, are speciallymentioned. 
He was a good example of the " school master 
bishops" with whom the Church of England was 
well stocked a generation ago. 

The church of St. Martin, so magnificent in 
the times of the historian Archbishop Gregory of 
Tours (573-94), became more and more magnifi- 
cent after several destructions by fire. It had 
reached its greatest splendour when it was pillaged 
by the Huguenots. Tours claims to have originated 
the name of those destructive people, who in the 
beginning used to steal out for secret meetings at 
night beyond the walls of the city, flitting about 
like the local bogey le roi Hugon. 1 And Tours pos- 
sesses to this clay in the name of one of its streets 
a reminiscence of the early hunting down of the 
Huguenots as a highly enjoyable form of the chasse 
aim renards. When their time came, they wreaked 
a savage revenge, and practically destroyed the 
noble Abbey Church. A reproduction of its 
appearance in the perfection of symmetry has been 
prepared from plans and drawings, and is shown in 
Plate 1. The only remains left by the Revolution 

1 This is of course not the usually assigned derivation ; 
but it sounds the more reasonable of the two. 



<feU ^^ JSBi; Sj/% V | 




Plate II 




St. Martin's, Tours ; the Horloge. 



To face p. 211. 



ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN. 211 

and by the necessity for new streets are the south- 
west tower, called of St. Martin/ or of the Hor- 
loge, and a tower of the north transept, called of 
Charlemagne. 2 They are of 12th-century founda- 
tion, but the latter has a capital of earlier date 
still clinging to it. Louis XI had surrounded the 
shrine of St. Martin with a rich and very massive 
gallery of solid silver, but his needy successor 
Francis was beforehand with the Huguenots and 
coined it into crown pieces. 

The tombs of St. Martin and the Saints who lay 
near him were destroyed 'by the Huguenots, and 
their relics were burned. Portions were saved, and 
in the new basilica of St. Martin, close to the site 
of the old basilica, there is a noble crypt with 
a reproduction of the massive tomb of St. Martin." 
On the wall is an inscription to the following 
effect : 

Nomina corporum sanctorum quae hie sepulta erant circa 
tumulum Beati Martini. 

SS. Briccius, Spanus, Perpetuus, Gregorius Tur., Eusto- 
chius, Eufronius, quorum venerabiles reliquiae in capsis 
existentes ab haereticis impiissime in dicta ecclesia fuerunt 
combustae anno 1562. 

Eustochius Briccius 

Perpetuus MARTINUS Spanus martyr 

Gregorius Eufronius 

Sic erant corpora horum in ecclesia B. Martini Tur. 
ordinata. 

The Rue des Halles runs right through the site 
of the old basilica. The new basilica lies at right 
angles to the old one, its axis lying north and 
south, an arrangement which places the modern 

1 Plate II. = Plate IIT. 3 Plate IV. 

P 2 



212 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

confessio, with its reproduction of the old tomb, 
practically on the site of the old coiifessio. 

The connexion of St. Martin with Tours came 
about in this way. He was born about 316, a 
native of Lower Hungary; had a taste for the 
monastic life ; was compelled by edict to become 
a soldier ; served for three years up to the age of 
eighteen ; went to visit Hilary at Poitiers ; after 
some years came again to Hilary, and founded the 
monastery of Lugug6, near Poitiers, said to have 
been the first monastic institution in Gaul. His 
reputation stood so high that in 371 he was elected 
by the populace to the bishopric of Tours, much 
against his will. He built the monastery of Mar- 
moutier, Mains Monasterium, about two miles to 
the north-east of the walls of Tours, where a large 
number of students received an education in such 
learning as then was known. His time was mostly 
spent in conversion of the pagans in his diocese. 
At the age of eighty, in 396, he was called to 
Condate to settle an ecclesiastical dispute, was 
seized with fever, and died. It was just at that 
time that his great admirer, Ninian, was finishing 
his stone church at Whithern, in Galloway, and to 
Martin he dedicated it. From that time, and 
owing to the connexion between Britain and Gaul, 
dedications to St. Martin were frequent, as is in- 
stanced by the old British church of St. Martin at 
Canterbury. 

When Martin died, the people of Poitiers flocked 
to Condate to claim the body of their former abbat. 
But the people of Tours asserted their better claim, 
and carried him off in a ship to Tours. The body of 
the saint was landed from the ship on the south 



Plate III 





St. Martin's, Tours ; the Tour Charlemagne, with the dome of the new 
St. Martin's on the left. 



To face. p. 212. 



ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN. 213 

bank of the Loire, and deposited in a small oratory ; 
the spot was called the Station of the Body of 
St. Martin. It was moved thence to a more cen- 
tral spot, and miracles began to be wrought at its 
new abode. Briccius, his successor in the bishopric, 
built a church over it in the eleventh year after the 
Saint's death. Perpetuus removed this church and 
built a more magnificent structure. The rich gifts 
of kings and others made the church of Perpetuus 
very beautiful. St. Odo, in a sermon on its de- 
struction by fire, described it as lined with various 
coloured marbles ; in one place the walls were red 
with Protonis marble, in another white with Parian, 
in another green with Prasine. This church was 
burned by Willicharius. Chlotaire I rebuilt it. The 
Normans burned it again in 853 and 903, and soon 
after the year 1000 it was rebuilt by Hervey the 
Treasurer in the form in which it existed to the 
time of the Revolution. The Calvinists pillaged 
it, as has been said above. At the destruction in 
the time of the Revolution the various parts of the 
church were sold to speculators, and under the First 
Empire all disappeared except the two towers which 
now remain. The Cathedral church in the old 
Roman city, the eastern part of the present city, 
was burned in the wars between Louis VII of 
France and our Henry II, who was Lord of Tours 
and Count of Anjou. 

In 1861 a rock-hewn tomb was found under 
a house which was known to stand on the site of 
the high altar of the Abbey church. A subter- 
ranean chapel was built over the tomb, and adorned 
with red granite. This is now the Confessio of the 
new basilica of St. Martin. 



214 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

There had only been two bishops of Tours before 
Martin. The first, Gatian, died in 301. Pie had 
officiated secretly 1 in the remarkable cave, across 
the front of which the ancient church of St. Rade- 
gonde now stands, with its inscriptions. 

Sea Radegundis Gemma Galliae Pretiosissima, Ora pro 
nobis. S. R. Regina Galliae. Scus Gatianus 

Turonum Primus Episcopus huius Parochiae Fundator 
Primo Saeculo. 

Lidorius succeeded Gatian after a lapse of thirty- 
seven years, and built a small basilica for his bishop's 
stool. 

Martin had, during his bishopric, brought from 
St. Maurice, in the valley of the Rhone, some relics 
of that saint, which he deposited in a chapel built 
by Lidorius, to which also he removed from the 
cemetery the remains of Gatian. This was the 
origin of the Cathedral church of Tours, and we 
are thus enabled to see why its primary dedication 
was to St. Maurice, and its second and permanent 
dedication is to St. Gatian. 

The public library at Tours, which is now on 
the quay facing the Loire, and not at the place, as 
indicated by the guide-books, where the Maine 
stands, has a remarkably interesting collection of 
manuscripts. Two of the finest of them are un- 
doubtedly of Charlemagne's time. One of these, 
Tours No. 22 (St. Martin No. 247) is a beautiful 
Book of the Gospels, written all in gold on very 
white parchment, in remarkably perfect condition. 

1 Multitudo paganorum idolatriis dedita. Per cryptas 
et latibula cum paucis Christianis per eumdem conversis. 
mysterium solemnitatis diei Dominici clanculocelebrabat. 



PUBLIC LIBRARY OF TOURS. 215 



The gold employed must have been singularly purr. 
There are 277 leaves each with double columns of 
25 lines, and in all 289 leaves; the size is 12f by 
9-J inches. The initial letters are quite simple, and 
in exceedingly good taste. The other, Tours No. 
23 (St. Martin No. 174), is also a Book of the 
Gospels, with 193 leaves, llf by 9f inches. It 
has so-called Hibernian initial letters, purple, with 
interlacements, and birds' heads with the charac- 
teristic eyes and beaks. It is much more probably 
Anglian than Hibernian, and we may attribute it 
to the scriptorium of the school of York, or to that 
of St. Martin of Tours as a copy from a York 
manuscript. The present librarian assigns it to 
the writing school of Marmoutier, across the Loire, 
which he thinks was the chief writing school of 
Tours in Alcuin's time. That opinion is founded 
on a remark in connexion with the first establish- 
ment of Marmoutier, to which reference will be 
made below ; 1 the English student may well attri- 
bute the MS. to St. Martin's itself, produced, as 
a copy, under Alcuin's own eye, especially as it has 
always appeared in the catalogue of St. Martin's 
and not in that of Marmoutier, and is now classed 
as a St. Martin's MS. 

The Evangeliarium first mentioned, in gold letters 
on white parchment, is a book of historic fame. 
It is the book on which the kings of France down 
to Louis XIV, in 1650, took their oath of fidelity 
and protection to St. Martin of Tours, when ad- 
mitted as abbat and first canon of the collegiate 
church. The book was bound with great magni- 

1 See p. 221. 



216 ALCUIN OF YOKK. 

ficence of gold and gems ; and when the Huguenots, 
under the Prince of Conde, sacked the place, they 
carried off the rich binding, but fortunately left the 
manuscript itself quite uninjured. The oath of the 
kings is written on the reverse of folio 277, in a 
style closely copied from the manuscript itself, pro- 
bably in the eleventh or twelfth century, all in 
small gold capital letters, with a point after every 
word. The entry runs as follows ; — 

Hoc est iurauientum regis Francie quod facere tenetur 
dum primo recipitur in abbatem et canonicum huius 
ecclesie beati Martini Turonensis. 

Ego N. annuente Domino Francorum rex Abbas et 
canonicus huius ecclesie Beati Martini Turonensis iuro 
Deo et Beato Martino me de cetero protectorem et de- 
fensorem fore huius Ecclesie in omnibus necessitatibus et 
utilitatibus suis custodiendo et conservando possessiones 
honores iura privilegia libertates franchisias et immunitates 
eiusdem Ecclesie quantum divino fultus adiutorio secundum 
posse meum recta et pura fide sic me Deus adiuvet et hec 
sancta verba. 

The first king 1 who held the secular abbacy of 
St. Martin of Tours was Charles the Bald, Charle- 
magne's grandson, who became king* of France 
(Neustria) in 843, about thirty years after Charle- 
magne's death. There were ecclesiastical abbats 
till the year 845, when the Count Vivian became 
the first lay abbat. After Charles the Bald it is 
probable that the kings held the abbacy. Hugh 
Capet (987-996) united the title of Abbat of St. 
Martin to that of King of France. The fifteen 
kings from Louis VII in 1137 to Louis XIV in 
1630 took the oath on this book on admission to 
the abbacy. 

The status of the abbat and of the brethren of 



MARTIN ENSIAN BISHOPS. 217 

St. Martin was long in uncertainty. Charlemagne 
refers to the vague status of the brethren in his 
letter of rebuke to them, which is given on p. 237 ; 
they called themselves canons, or monks, as befil 
suited the necessities of an occasion. Probably 
there had been a time when the monaster)' included 
both secular and regular inmates. It is uncertain 
also whether the brethren elected the bishop (or 
archbishop) of Tours, and, indeed, whether they had 
not a bishop of their own. Hadrian I, addressing 
the abbat Itherius, who was the first founder of 
Cormery as a place of residence for regular monks 
of St. Benedict, writes thus ' of St. Martin's — •'* we 
decree that it be lawful to have a bishop there as 
has been from ancient times up to now, by whose 
preaching the people who come from various parts 
with devoted mind to the holy thresholds of the 
said confessor of Christ may receive remedial help 
from the Creator of souls." Urban II, in 1096, at 
the Council of Tours, recognized this, and " united 
the Martinensian bishopric to the Apostolic See ", 
a very honourable extinction. We have the names 
of eight abbats before Itherius. The seventh 
of them, TVicterbus, was bishop and abbat ; the 
eighth, the immediate predecessor of Itherius, Wulf- 
hard I, was abbat only. It is supposed that the 
appointment of Alcuin, one of the secular clergy 
and in deacon's orders, was a decided step in the 
secularization of the Abbey, and that his policy was 
in the same direction. It may be suggested thai 
already in the time of Itherius that abbat was 
conscious of a secularizing tendency, and on (hat 

1 For farther extracts from Hadrian's decree, se< p. 228. 



218 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

account founded Cormery ; and that Alcuin found 
the existence of the regular abbey at Cormery 
a convenient outlet for the remnant of regular 
brethren at St. Martin's, and handed St. Martin's 
over to his successor, Wulfhard II, as a purely 
secular foundation. The step to a lay abbacy was 
then not a long one. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Further details of the Public Library of Tours. — Mar- 
moutier. — The Royal Abbey of Connery.— Licence of Ha- 
drian I to St. Martin's to elect bishops. — Details of the 
Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Tours. 

The Public Library of Tours, as we have seen, 
has a very large and interesting collection of 
manuscripts, which have come mainly from three 
sources, the libraries, namely, of (1) the Cathedral 
church of Tours, (2) the Monastery known as 
Marmoutier, and (3) the Collegiate church of 
St. Martin. Twenty-one other churches and 
foundations in the neighbourhood contributed 
manuscripts, besides such collections as the expelled 
nobles possessed. In 1791 the libraries of the old 
churches were collected into one depot, the French 
Church having been organized as a civil institution 
in that year and monastic vows made illegal. In 
1793 the Conseil General of the Indre-et-Loire 
ordered that "les livres et manuscrits provenant 
des maisons religieuses et des emigres seront places 
an ci-devant Eveche, a l'effet de quoi le citoyen 
Suzor sera averti de Fevacuer au plus tard le 15 
mars prochain ". The third floor of the Evcche 
was used for housing the manuscripts, &c, and by 
a most fortunate appointment a true lover of the 
old things was made librarian. This was Dom 



220 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Jean Joseph Abrassart, ex-religious o£ Marmoutier. 
He succeeded in saving* a very large proportion of 
the ancient manuscripts known to be in existence 
in the neighbourhood, especially those at Mar- 
moutier. 

The library of the Cathedral church at Tours 
dated from the time of St. Perpetuus, the sixth 
bishop, who left to his Cathedral church all his 
manuscripts except the copy of the Gospels written 
by the hand of St. Hilary of Poitiers (353-68) 
whom St. Martin had visited. 1 Perpetuus was 
Bishop of Tours from 460 to 494. Ruinart, whose 
edition of Gregory of Tours Migne took as the 
original of his edition, notes that he had seen in 
the Cathedral library at Tours a book in Saxon 
characters which had been supposed to be the work 
of Hilary's own hand; but he found that it con- 
tained matter much later than Hilary's time, and 
that the author had appended an inscription stating 
himself to be Holaindus by name. A catalogue of 
the Cathedral library was made in 1706 by the 
Chanoine Victor d'Avanne, at which time the 
library contained 461 manuscripts. The Chanoine 
complained that many other manuscripts had been 
borrowed by savants and not returned ; he names as 
culprits Auguste de Thou, Andre Duchesne, Maan, 

1 His last testament is printed by Migne in the Appen- 
dix to the works of Gregory of Tours, columns 1148-51. 
" Simul et omnes libros meos praeter Evangeliorum librum 
quern scripsit Hilarius quondam Piciavensis saeerdos quern 
tibi Eufronio fratri et consacerdoti dilectissimo cum prefata 
theca do lego volo statuo." This theca was one of silver, 
containing relics of saints, which he used to carry about 
with him. Another theca, gilt, was in his chest, with two 
chalices of gold and a gold cross made by Mabuin ; these he 
left to his church. 



MARMOUTIER. 221 



and Michel de Marolls. Of the 461 manuscripts 
catalogued, the Public Library now has 309. 

The library of Marmoutier was founded by 
St. Martin himself with the abbey : so at least the 
phrase is understood to mean, "except writing* 
(or scripture) no art was exercised there." Dom 
Gerou, librarian of Marmoutier, made a catalogue 
of the manuscripts in his charge, and Chalmel's 
copy of that catalogue is now in the library of 
Tours. There were, in 1754, 360 manuscripts, and 
there are now 263 of them in the library. Many of 
these are of value. Marmoutier was always rich 
in Latin manuscripts. In 1716 a great collection 
made by the Lesdiguieres family was bought at 
Toulouse ; these were chiefly French, and thus 
it comes about that the library of Tours now 
possesses some of the very first rank of the most 
ancient monuments of French literature. 

Sulpicius Severus, who made a special visit to 
St. Martin at Tours, gives us an exact description 
of the site of this monastery, founded by Martin 
in or about 372, at a distance of two miles from 
the city, on its north-east side. He describes it as 
bounded on the north by a range of precipitous 
rock, and on the south by a portion of the stream 
of the river Loire, here divided. In those times 
it was only accessible by one narrow way. 
Martin's own cell was of wood, but many of the 
eighty brethren excavated cells for themselves in 
the rock, the nature of which lends itself to such 
excavation. The range of cliff is honeycombed to 
this day for stables, wagon -sheds, &c. ; indeed, 
excavations of this character are a feature of the 
district, observable from Poitiers to many miles on 



222 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



the Orleans side of Tours. This abbey, like that of 
St. Martin, gradually became secularized, and it, 
like St. Martin's, was ruled by Count Vivian forty 
years after Alcuiiv\s death. The names of many of 
its abbats before Alcuin's time are known, but it is 
only from the year 814 that a continuous series is 
recorded. A photograph of some remains of the 
abbey is given in Plate V. 

The library of the Collegiate church of St. Martin 
was founded by Alcuin, who borrowed books from 
England, mainly from York, and had them copied ; 
probably some of the borrowed books remained at 
Tours, for Northumbria was in too disturbed a state 
to look after manuscripts lent to France. In 1739 
Bernard de Montfaucon published an inventory 
of this library, which then contained 272 manu- 
scripts. Of these the library of Tours now possesses 
140. The twenty-one other sources referred to above 
have provided 96 manuscripts, and the library has, 
besides, 159 which cannot be traced to their source. 
This makes nearly 1,000 manuscripts in all from these 
sources. The twenty-one sources referred to, and 
the number of manuscripts each has provided, are as 
follows: The Augustins of Tours 16; les Carmes 
11 ; les Capucins 1 ; les Dames du Calvaire 3 : 
POratoire 19 ; les Recollets 1 ; le Grand Seminaire 
St, Julien 3; St, Pierre le Puellier 2; l'Union 
Chretienne 3 ; la Visitation 2 ; Aigues Vives 1 ; 
Amboise 3; St. Florentin d'Amboise 1; 1'Abbaye 
de Beaumont 4 ; Bois-Rayer 1 ; Cormery 5 ; Notre- 
Dame de Loches 2 ; la Chartreuse du Liget 5 ; les 
Augustines de Beaulieu-les-Loches 1 ; les Reli- 
gieuses Hospitalieres de Loches 1 ; les Minimes 
du Plessis-les-Tours 11. What endless treasures 



Plate V 




1 P ; 



! 

if 



if 
11 



ft ■ » 




1 

i 



g 




■■■■■bHBHHIs 

Some remains of Marmoutier. 



To face. p. 222. 



THE ABBEY OF CORMERY. 223 

England would now have possessed if municipal 
authorities had taken snch care as this of the 
monastic libraries in the time of Henry VIII. 

In translating 1 the life of Alcuin, we omitted 
one of the examples of Alcnin's insight into the 
ways of men which the anonymous author gives. 
It relates to Cormery, some miles up the river 
Indre, one of the places from which manuscripts 
were brought into the library of Tours. The trick 
played was as clever in itself as the detection of 
it was. It got over the difficulty of the vessels 
being found to be partly empty, and the difficulty 
that, if they were filled up with water, the taster 
of the monastery would detect the fraud at once. 

This is the passage in the Life : — 

" To the brothers of Cormery, whom he greatly 
loved, the father had ordered a hundred measures 
of wine to be given. When the wine was to be 
taken to the monastery, he ordered the stewards 
of the monastery, through Sigulf, a monk of 
Abbat Benedict, that they should detain the con- 
veyors of the wine, until in their presence the 
wine should be poured from the vessels in which 
they had brought it into others; because some of 
them had stealthily taken out some of the wine, 
and, in order that the vessels might be full when 
they reached the monastery, had put into them 
river-sand. That this had been done, the fathers 
proved most conclusively." 

The monastery of St. Paul at Cormery has 
a special interest for students of Alcuin. William 
of Malmesbury makes mention of it in the famous 
passage in which he so highly praises Alcuin. 1 

1 Gesta Begum, i. X. 



224 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



After quoting AlcmVs request 1 to Karl that he 
may have sent over from his library of York some 
of the manuscripts which he describes as the flowers 
of Britain, " that the garden of paradise may not 
be confined to York, but some of its scions may 
be transplanted to Tours/' William proceeds thus : 
" This is that same Alcuin who, as I have said, 
was sent into France to treat of peace, and during 
his abode with Charles, captivated either by the 
pleasantness of the country or the kindness of the 
king, settled there; and being held in high esti- 
mation, he taught the king, during his leisure from 
the cares of state, a thorough knowledge of logic, 
rhetoric, and astronomy. Alcuin was, of all the 
Angles of whom I have read, next to St. Aldhelm 
and Bede, certainly the most learned, and has given 
proof of his talents in a variety of compositions. 
He lies buried in France, at the church of St. Paul 
of Cormery 2 , which monastery Charles the Great 
built at his suggestion ; on which account, even 
at the present day (about 1130 a.d.), the subsistence 
of four monks is distributed in alms for the soul of 
our Alcuin in that church.'" 

We have the documents which relate to the 
foundation of St. Paul of Cormery, and they do 
not quite carry out William's statement. Itherius, 
the predecessor of Alcuin at St. Martin's of Tours, 
had acquired land at Cormery for the residence of 
monks, and in 791 had issued a precept for the 
construction of a monastery. Much discussion has 
centred round this fact, to which further reference 
is made in another part of this book. 3 In the year 

1 See p. 203. 2 But see p. 50. 

3 See p. 217. 



THE ABBEY OF CORMERY. 225 

800, Karl issued two interesting documents \ botli 
dated from St. Martin's at Tours, one signed by 
the king himself, the other certified by Genesius, 
acting as deputy for the chancellor Hercambold. 
The first of these documents has interesting fea- 
tures, and in it we find the reason for the abbey 
being called, down to the Revolution, V Allay e 
Iloyale cle Conner?/, and having as its armorial 
bearings the crowned eagle of the empire impalim;- 
the lilies of France ancient. It is addressed to " all 
the faithful men of St. Martin at that time serving 
in the holy place where that precious confessor of 
Christ rests in the body, and to all who shall follow 
them. Our beloved master Albinus has with pious 
devotion begged of us that he may be allowed to 
settle monks in the cell of St. Paul, which in rustic 
speech is called Cormery, there to live the regular 
life according to the statutes of the holy Benedict. 
This place his predecessor Abbat Itherius had 
acquired; he had built it, and handed it over to 
St. Martin. We have thought it right to give our 
assent to his pious devotion, and have caused it to 
be confirmed by our letters under the seal of our 
authority, in order that no severance may ever take 
place. For if divine piety has given to our parents 
and to us the power over the whole monastery of 
St. Martin, and the right to give it to whom we 
will, how much more have we the power of assign- 
ing to God the aforesaid place. It is not lawful for 
any one to contemn the donation or confirmation of 
royal benignity, especially in an order so pious 
and wholesome as this. Therefore we entirely 

1 Printed in Gallia Christiana under Tours. See p. 22S. 



226 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

order that this our donation stand to all time fixed 
and inviolate, and that this place be never taken 
away from the possession of St. Martin, but that 
there monks shall live under the full rule of 
St. Benedict and have protection and help from 
the abbats of the monastery of St. Martin. If 
any abbat in time to come should disregard this 
our precept, let him know that he shall render an 
account of his presumption to our Lord Jesus 
Christ in the day of His great advent. So also 
shall any who diminishes aught of the things 
which Abbat Itherius of blessed memory acquired, 
of the property of St. Martin which he gave to 
the church of St. Paul, or of the things which the 
said Abbat Albinus has given, at whose request we 
have caused write these letters, or anything which 
any one may have given in alms for his soul. That 
this may stand the more firm, we have determined 
to subscribe it with our own hand and have caused 
it to be sealed with our ring." 

The other document, addressed to all bishops, 
counts, officers, &c, grants licence to the monks, 
' ' at the request of our most beloved and faithful 
the venerable Abbat Albinus 9J 9 to have two ships 
coming and going with necessary things on the 
rivers Loire, Sarthe, and Vienne, free from toll. 
This was ordered to be sealed with Karl's ring. 
The navigation of the Indre, being their own river, 
was no doubt free to them without grant. 

Ithier governed St. Martin's at Tours from 770 
to 791. Soon after 791 he died, and was buried in 
a grave at the entrance of the nave of the abbatial 
church of Cormery, on the north side. The place 
can still be pointed out. Eridugisus, the Nathanael 



Plate VI 




Capital found at Cornier 



To face p. 227. 



CORMERY. 227 



of Alcuin's letters, who was designated by Alcuin 
as his immediate successor, became abbat of St. 
Martin's after Wulfhard II. He built a stone 
church, the west front of which still stands in con- 
siderable part, with the eleventh-century Roman- 
esque tower, most of which still stands, applied to 
it, the east wall of the tower being the west front 
of Fridugisus. Plate VI shows a capital which 
has recently been found, evidently of the time of 
Fridugisus. Considerable parts of the later Gothic 
walls still stand. They are carefully tended by 
M. Octave Bobcau, the local correspondent of the 
Minister of Public Education, whose apartments 
are in the refectory of the abbey. The cure of 
Cormery, M. l'abbe Jaillet, is a most obliging guide 
to the ruins, as also to his own very fine cruciform 
parish church. In these most recent days "his 
own"" is a misdescription. The inventories have 
been taken, and Monsieur le Maire is the master of 
the parish church and its services. The large house 
of the abbats of Cormery is now a dwelling-house 
in connexion with the communal school. An early 
engraving in a French account of Touraine shows 
that the western tower was crowned with a gallery 
and spire, not unlike that shown in the illustration 
of Marmoutier, Plate V. 

Some commentators suppose that the "other 
monastery ", which Alcuin informs Arno he has built 
some eight miles from the city, was this monastery 
of Cormery. But the distance named is not easily 
reconciled with the geographical facts, and Alcuin 
could not properly have stated that he was the 
founder of Cormery. 

Cormery provided a home for the severer side of 
<J3 



228 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



the monastic life, St. Martin's and Marmoutier 
remaining secular. Cormery being a considerable 
distance away, a Benedictine abbey, of St. Julien, 
was established in the eastern part of Tours, in the 
tenth century, by Archbishop Theotolon, and a 
Romanesque abbey-church was built, the square 
tower of which still remains; the church in its 
present state has some ancient paintings, and 
deserves a visit. Being within the limits of the 
ancient Roman town, it would naturally be under 
the jurisdiction of the archbishop. 

This will be a convenient point at which to 
give further details 1 of the remarkable licence of 
Hadrian for a permanent bishopric of the western 
part of the present city, at that time a district 
separate from the ancient city, in which latter was 
the stool of the archbishop of Tours. 

The licence of Hadrian I, allowing the abbat 
and brethren of St. Martin's to elect and to have 
their own bishop, is printed (from Baluz) in Gallia 
Christiana, vol. xiv, p. 7 of the Instrumenta relat- 
ing to Tours. The date is 786. The licence is 
addressed to Abbat Autherius, that is, Itherius. It 
sets forth that by royal and papal privileges the 
Abbey of St. Martin of Tours was in all respects 
independent of the episcopal authority of the bishop 
of Tours ; 2 whatsoever in the flock of St. Martin 
needed arranging, ruling, or correcting, was a 

1 See p. 217. 

3 It may be helpful to remember that the abbey was 
originally outside the ancient Koman city, and its district 
was called Martin opolis. The ancient Gallican bishoprics 
were bishoprics of cities rather than of dioceses in our wide 
sense of the word. This may conceivably have a bearing on 
the curious question raised by Hadrian. 



MAKTINENSIAN BISHOPS. 229 

matter for the abbat, provost, dean, and other 
most approved men. Hadrian declares that they 
may have a bishop of their own, as had been the 
custom from ancient times until most recent times, 
because of the great numbers of persons who flocked 
from all parts to visit the shrine and needed in- 
struction in the faith. The person elected by the 
abbat and the flock shall be ordained by the neigh- 
bouring bishops. The metropolitan bishop — that 
is, the archbishop of Tours — shall not enter the 
church for any exercise of his episcopal office, such 
as ordinations, or making the chrism, nor shall he 
have power to summon any of the priests of the 
monastery to appear before him. The abbey bishop 
must not be impleaded without the assent of the 
abbat. He is to have the pastoral care of the 
neighbouring districts held by the abbey, and is to 
amend and correct in canonical manner and due 
order with the consent of his abbat. If the abbat 
does not choose to settle any matter of dispute 
which may arise between the St. Martin's bishop 
and the bishops of the neighbourhood, the matter 
must come direct to the apostolic see. 

That is a very remarkable document. We are 
not without indications of other unusual customs 
in the province of Tours. 

The Archbishop of Tours had eventually eleven 
suffragans, Le Mans, Angers, Rennes, Nantes, 
Vannes, Cornouaille, Leon, Trequier, St. Brieuc, 
St. Malo, Dol. Some of these bishoprics trace 
their origin to refugees from Britain in the middle 
of the sixth century. A marked feature of the 
Archbishopric was the existence and permanence 
of the office of Archpresbyter. The Chapter of 



230 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Tours itself, in its most complete form, consisted 
of Dean, Archdeacon of Tours, Treasurer, Prae- 
centor, Chancellor, two other Archdeacons, the 
Archpresbyter of Tours, and fifty or more Canons. 
The Princeps Archipresbyter preached on the 
greater Sundays, as the Ecclesiastes Theologus did 
on other Sundays. At Le Mans, before Alcuin's 
time at Tours, there were two Archpresbyters, 
each in management of half of the diocese; in 
the eleventh century there were three ; in 1200, 
eight. In 1230 Maurice replaced them by seven 
Archdeacons, who had under them a number of 
rural deans, decani rusticanis negotiis, an office into 
which the Archpresbyters, once so important, sub- 
sided. Archdeacons of Le Mans are first named in 
the will of St. Bertramn, in 623. At Angers the 
chief Archdeacon had under him four Archpres- 
byters; the second Archdeacon had one Arch- 
presbyter and two Rural Deans ; the third Arch- 
deacon had three Rural Deans. At Angers the 
Archbishop of Tours acted in 1334 much as the 
Archbishop acted at St. Martin's at Tours in or 
before Alcuin's time; he freed the Chapter from 
episcopal control and himself confirmed the Deans l . 

1 See my Constitution of French Chapters, Proceedings of 
St. Paul's Eeclesiological Society, Vol. Ill, 1895. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Great dispute on right of sanctuary. — Letters of Alcuin 
on the subject to his representatives at court and to a bishop. 
— The emperor's severe letter to St. Martin's. — Alcuin's 
reply. — Verses of the bishop of Orleans on Charlemagne, 
Luitgard, and Alcuin. 

In the year 801, or early in 802, a question of 
sanctuary arose on which Alcuin and Charlemagne 
took opposite views. The Emperor was imperious 
in his dealing with the matter. 

Two of Alcum's pupils, Candidus and Nathanael, 
held offices in the court of the Emperor at Aachen. 
Nathanael was the pupil to whom Alcuin wrote 
a well-known letter about the temptations and 
occupations of the court, his warnings against the 
temptations being conveyed under cover of figura- 
tive language. ' ' Let not the crowned doves come Ep. 179. 
to thy windows, that flit about in the chambers 
of the palace ; let not wild horses break in at the 
door of thy chamber ; do not occupy thyself with 
dancing bears/'' To Candidus and Nathanael he 
wrote, in evident anxiety, to tell them what had 
happened, and to bid them put it before the 
Emperor in a favourable light. This is what he 
says. 

« The venerable father Theudulf us the Bishop Ep. 180 
[of Orleans] has a dispute with some of your oq?1o 



232 ALCUIN OF YOBK. 

brethren of St. Martin's about a certain fugitive 
culprit. This culprit, after suffering very many 
kinds of punishment, suddenly escaped from con- 
finement, fled to the church of St. Martin a chief 
confessor of Christ, confessed his sins, begged 
for reconciliation, appealed to Caesar, and demanded 
to go to his most holy presence. We gave him up 
to the messengers of the said bishop. They knew, 
it is said, that preparations had been made to way- 
lay them ; they dismissed him as he stood before 
the doors of the church, and went their way. 
Thereupon there came a large number of the men 
of the said venerated bishop, in a hostile manner 
as we have ascertained. Eight principal men 
entered the church on the Lord's day with our 
own bishop [Joseph, the Archbishop of Tours], 
These were not the ' eight principal men 3 who are 
read of in the prophet 1 as wasting the land of 
Nimrod with swords and lances; they came to 
carry off the culprit, to profane the sanctity of the 
house of God, to belittle the honour of the holy 
confessor of Christ, Martin; indeed they rushed 
into the sanctuary within the gates of the altar. 
The brethren drove them out before the front of 
the altar. If they deny this, they say what is 
absolutely false. No one of them at that time 
bowed the head before the altar of God. 

"The report spread that a hostile force had 
come from Orleans [a distance of seventy miles] 
to violate the rights of St. Martin, for they were 
known to be Orleans men. The pensioners rushed 
together from every part of the city to the defence 

1 Micah v. 5, 6. 



RIGHT OF SANCTUARY. 233 

of their own defender. Tumult and fear grew 
rapidly all over. Our brethren rescued the men 
of the aforesaid bishop from the hands of the 
crowd, lest they should be evil intreated, and 
drove the people out of the church. 

"Now I know that the above-named pontiff 
will bring many accusations against our brethren ; 
will exaggerate what was done ; will say that things 
were done which were not done ; for we have it in 
his letters. 

" I therefore charge you, my dearest sons, that 
you cast yourselves at the feet of my lord David 
the most just and serene emperor. Beg of him 
that when the bishop comes to complain, an oppor- 
tunity of defence may be afforded, and of disputing 
with him whether it is just that an accused person 
should be taken by force from a church and sub- 
jected to the very punishments from which he 
has fled; whether it is right that one who has 
appealed to Caesar should not be brought to Caesar ; 
whether it is lawful to spoil of all his goods, even 
to a boot-lace, one who is penitent and has con- 
fessed his sins; whether that saying of the 
Scripture 1 is well observed, Mercy rejoiceth against 
judgment/'' 

Alcuin then criticises the letter of the Bishop of 
Orleans, which has not been preserved. In the 
course of the criticism he says two rather clever 
things. 

" The venerable father says that an accused 
sinner ought not to be received in the church. But 
if sinners are not to enter the church, how are you 

1 James ii. 13. 



234 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

to have a priest to say mass in the church, or who 
will there be to respond except some quite newly 
baptised person? For does not St. John say, If 
we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, 
and the truth is not in us. Again, we find that in 
the venerable bishop's letter the accused man is 
called a devil, not a man. Think what the Apostle 
says, Judge not before the time." 

Alcuin then proceeds to quote the canons on 
fugitives, and to describe the arrangements made 
in all parts for men to take sanctuary. He ends 
with a powerful appeal to the Emperor to bear in 
mind the danger of allowing any supreme dignity 
to be made light of. 
Ep. 181 In another letter, written at the same time, and 

A frag- in great part in the same words, to a bishop not 
ment. named, Alcuin adds something to what he has 
said in the letter to his pupils. The man, he says, 
had certainly committed many sins and done very 
impious wickedness. But he had the evidence of 
two priests, Christian of St. Benedict of Tours 
and Adalbert of St. Martin, that he had made 
confession to them before he was seized and bound 
and tortured. Probably Alcuin thought that would 
not appeal very forcibly to the mind of the 
Emperor, and that the impiousness of the man 
would do more harm to his cause than the fact 
of confession would do good. The man was given 
up by the brethren of St. Martin not that he 
might be taken off to Orleans, but that he might 
be taken before the Archbishop of Tours by the 
messengers of the Bishop of Orleans, a matter 
very different from what it appeared to be in 
Alcuin's letter to his representatives at Court. 



Charlemagne's letter to alcuin. 235 

The attempt to cany off the fugitive was very 
unscrupulous, for the man was within the altar 
rails and was actually lying prostrate in supplica- 
tion and appeal before the sepulchre of St. Martin. 

Alcuin thought it best to send the fugitive far 
out of the way. We do not know what he had 
done, or who he was ; but we may gather that his 
name was something like Kalb from the words 
which Alcuin applies to him in sending him to 
Salzburg, to the safe keeping of Arno the Arch- 
bishop. 

li I have sent to you this animal, the calf of my Ep. 183 
hand, that you may help him and keep him out of a. d. 801-2. 
the hands of his enemies. Help him as much as 
you can, for the venerable bishop, that is Theo- 
dulfus, is greatly enraged against us. I have put 
into the mouth of this youth, the calf being an 
animal unnaturally rational, what he must moo in 
the ears of your holiness/"' 

Now let us hear the voice of the emperor, by no 
means the moo of a calf. We learn from his letter 
what on other grounds we should have imagined, 
namely, that the culprit was a cleric. Well might 
the bishop of Orleans rage against the Abbat of 
St. Martin. 

(t In the name of the Father and of the Son and Bp. 182. 
of the Holy Ghost. Charles &C 1 to the Venerable 
Master Albinus and the whole congregation of the 
monastery of St. Martin. 

"The day before your letter reached our pre- 

1 We know from other sources that this "&c." meant 
Most Serene Augustus, crowned by God, great peace-making 
Emperor, Governor of the Roman Empire, by the mercy of 
God King of the Franks and of the Lombards. 



236 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

sence, a letter was brought to us from Bishop 
Theodulf [of Orleans], containing complaint of 
dishonour done to his men, or rather to the bishop 
of the city [of Tours], and in contempt of the 
order of our empire. Which order we caused 
write under the authority of our name for the 
rendering up of a certain cleric, escaped from the 
bishop's custody, and in hiding in the basilica of 
St. Martin, a copy of which you have sent to us. 
In it we think that we did not decree anything 
unjustly, as you have thought we did. 

"We have had both letters read to us again, 
yours [that is, Alcuin's] and TheodiuTs. Your 
letter appears to us to be much harsher than 
Theodulf's, and to have been written in anger, 
without any seasoning of charity towards him ; in 
defence of the fugitive, and in accusation against 
the bishop. Under cover of a concealed name it 
maintains that the accused person could and should 
be allowed to bring an accusation, whereas both 
divine and human law forbids to allow a criminous 
person to accuse another. For this he was defended 
and protected by you, under pretext of the authority 
of our name ; as though one who had been accused 
and judged in sight of the people of his own qity 
of Orleans should have an opportunity of bringing 
an accusation by appeal to the emperor, after the 
example of the blessed Paul the Apostle. But 
Paul, when accused by his own nation before the 
princes of Judaea, but not as yet judged, appealed 
to Caesar, and by the princes he was sent to Caesar 
to be judged. That does not at all coincide with 
the present case. For this cleric of evil repute was 
accused, and judged, and sent to prison, and thence 



CHARLEMAGNE S LETTER TO ALCUIN. 237 

escaped, and contrary to law entered the basilica, 
which he ought not to have entered till after he 
had done penance, and still — it is said — ceases not 
to live perversely ; this man you say has appealed 
to Caesar in the same manner as Paul. But he 
certainly is not coming to Caesar as Paul did. 

" We have given orders to Bishop Theodulf , by 
whom he was judged and sent to prison, and from 
whose custody he escaped, that he be brought back ; 
and the bishop must bring him to our audience, 
whether he speaks truth or falsehood ; for it con- 
sists not with our dignity that for such a man as 
this there should be any change of our original 
order. 

' ' We greatly wonder that to you alone it should 
seem fit to go against our authoritative sanction 
and decree, when it is quite clear, both from ancient 
custom and from the constitution, that the de- 
crees of enactments ought to be unalterable, and 
that to no one is it permitted to disregard their 
edicts and statutes. And herein we can not suffi- 
ciently marvel that you have preferred to yield to 
the entreaties of that wretch, rather than to our 
authoritative commands. 

" Now you yourselves, who are called the con- 
gregation of this monastery and the servants of 
God, yea the true God, know how your life is now 
frequently evil spoken of by many, and not with- 
out cause. You declare yourselves sometimes to 
be monks, sometimes canons, sometimes neither. 
And we, acting for your good and to remove your 
evil repute, looked out a suitable master and rector 
for you and invited him to come from a distant 
province. He by his words and admonitions, and 



238 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

— for that he is a religious man — by his example 
of good conversation, could have amended the 
manner of your life. But — ah, the grief of it — 
all has turned out the other way. The devil has 
found you as his ministers for sowing discord 
exactly in the wrong place, namely, between wise 
men and doctors of the church. And those who 
ought to correct and chastise sinners you drive into 
the sin of envy and wrath. But they, by God's 
mercy, will not lend an ear to your evil suggestions. 

" And you, who stand out as contemners of our 
command, whether you be called canons or monks, 1 
know that at our pleasure, as our present messenger 
will indicate to you, you must appear before us; 
and although a letter sent to us here excuses you 
of actual sedition, you must come and wipe out 
your unjust crime by condign amends/'' 

Alcuin's reply was more than twice as long. 
Ep. 184. " To the lord most excellent, and of all honour 

most worthy, Charles, king, emperor, and most 
victorious most great most good and most serene 
Augustus, Albinus his servitor wishes the welfare 
of present prosperity, and of future beatitude, eternal 
in Christ the Lord God. 

" On the first face of this letter I see that thanks 
from my whole heart must be given by me to our 
Lord God for your safety and welfare, not to me 
only but to all Christians most necessary. Next, 
with prostrate body, contrite heart, tearful voice, 

1 The emperor irresistibly reminds us of the Eton master 
and the boy who complained that his name was not that 
called for punishment :— 

Sive tu mavis Busanquet vocari 
Sive Bosanquet, 
Te vapulabo. 



alcuin's letter to chaelemagne. 239 



mercy must be begged of the piety of your good- 
ness for the brethren of St. Martin, to whose service 
your goodness delegated me however little worthy. 
I call God as the witness of my conscience that 
never have I understood the brethren to be such as 
I hear that they are called by some who are more 
ready to accuse than to save. As far as can be 
seen and known, they worthily perform the office 
in the churches of Christ, and I most truly bear 
witness that never any where have I seen other 
men celebrating more perfectly or more diligently, 
in daily course interceding for your safety and the 
stability of the Christian empire. Of their life and 
conversation you can learn from a perfect man, an 
incorrupt judge, and a faithful messenger, Wido 
[Count of the shore of Britany]. He has looked 
into all their affairs and knows what they have 
done and how they have lived. 

" I have not been slow to admonish them con- 
cerning the strictness of the monastic life, as they 
themselves will testify, if any one will accept their 
testimony. And I do not know what faults they 
have committed against their accusers, that they 
should pursue them with such hatred. 

"It is a matter of wonder why they 1 wish to 
push themselves, contrary to the edict of the law, 
into another's harvest. The illustrious doctor for- 
bids this where he says 2 Who art thou that judgest 
another man's servant? To his own master he 
standeth or falleth. Yea he shall stand, for God is 
able to make him stand. For the city of Tours 
has a pastor [Joseph, the Archbishop], in his life 

1 That is, Theodulfus, the Bishop of Orleans. 

2 Romans xiv. 4. 



240 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



elect, in preaching devout, who knows how best to 
give to the family of Christ their portion of meat. 
Let each shepherd watch over his own flock, that 
no member of it lack the grace of God ; that when 
the shepherd of all shall come He may find them 
worthy of eternal reward. 

" With regard to the concourse and tumult which 
arose in the church of St. Martin, or without in the 
atrium, I testify in the sight of Him that knows 
the heart of each that it took place without any 
incitement or foreknowledge or even wish of mine. 
And I confess that never was I in greater trouble 
for other men's offences than then. Nor, as far as 
I have been able to understand or to hear, was any 
thing done by design of the brethren. I have not 
even been able to learn that they wished it ; and 
there can be no doubt that no one who fears God 
and cares for his own salvatioD, should — I will not 
say do such a thing but — even think of it. 

" Did not the venerable man Teotbert, sent by 
your authority, spend nineteen days among them 
for the purpose of this enquiry ? Whom he would, 
he flogged; whom he would, he put in chains; 
whom he would, he put on oath ; whom he pleased, 
he summoned to your presence. 

" In vain have I so long time served my Lord 
Jesus Christ if His mercy and providence have so 
forsaken me that I should fall into this impious 
wickedness in the days of my old age. 

" The true cause of this tumult, as far as I have 
been able to understand, I am not ashamed to lay 
before your excellency, sparing no one, so that I may 
produce testimony to the truth. 



ALCUINS LETTER TO CHARLEMAGNE 241 

"It appears to me that in the doing of this 
impious deed no one has offended more gravely 
than the guard of this wretch, from whose negli- 
gence so many evils came. If I may say so to 
those who hear this letter read, I think it would be 
more just that he by whose negligence the accused 
man escaped from his bonds should suffer the same 
bonds, than that the fugitive to the protection of 
Christ our God and of His saints, should be sent 
back from the church into the same bonds. I will 
not put this on my own opinion, I am supported 
by the word of God who bade x the prophet say to 
the king of Israel who had let go out of his hand 
the king of Syria, Thus saith the Lord, Because 
thou hast let go a man worthy of death, thy life 
shall be for his life. 

"In the second place, I take it that the men were 
the cause of the tumult who came armed in larger 
number than was necessary from Orleans to Tours ; 
especially because the report ran through the popu- 
lace that they had come to carry off with violence 
a man who had fled to the protection of the Church 
of Christ and St. Martin. For all men everywhere 
take it ill that their holy ones are dishonoured. 
Perhaps, too, the miserable man had called upon 
the rustics who came to his dwelling in their cups 
to defend the church of St. Martin and not allow 
him to be snatched from it. 

"There was a third cause of the tumult. Our 
holy father and pontiff [Archbishop Joseph] in- 
opportunely, the people being present, entered the 
church along with the men who were supposed to 

1 1 Kings xx. 42. 

n 



242 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

have come to drag away the man. He may have 
done this in the simplicity of his heart, not imagin- 
ing that any harm could come. 1 When the ignorant 
people, always doing thoughtlessly inconvenient 
things, saw this, they cried out, they took to their 
clubs ; some energetic men ran out when they 
heard the bells sound. They were rung by un- 
skilled hands; your own judges ascertained that, 
and our accusers themselves allowed that it was so, 
for in their presence the holy Gospel was brought ; 
there was laid upon it the wood of the holy Cross ; 
they made such of the brethren as they chose, 
swear by that. When the brethren heard the 
bells, they rushed out of the refectory to learn 
why they were being rung. As I am informed, 
they did what they could to allay the tumult; 
only some youths, who were found and sent to your 
presence, were the offenders in the concourse. 
From them it can be learned what they did ; they 
have sworn that they acted on the prompting of 
no man, only on the impulse of their own folly. 
Not one of the servants of St. Martin was there, 
except a man called Amalgarius, who was with me 
at the moment. Him I sent at once with the 
other brethren to appease the tumult, and to ex- 
tricate the men of the venerable bishop from the 
hands of the people, so that no harm should be 
done them. As soon as the tumult was appeased, 
they were brought into the monastery, where they 
were safe. These men were so burning with wrath 
against me that they turned a kindness I had 
ordered to be done to them into evil, saying that 

1 This refers, no doubt, to the immunity of St. Martin's 
from the intervention of the Archbishop. 



ALCUINS LETTER TO CHARLEMAGNE. 243 

it was in insult that I had sent them some food. 1 
This was absolutely false. They did not know 
that I was imbued with the Lord's command, Do 
good unto them that hate you. 

" Let your holy piety, most pious lord, consider 
these facts and recognize the truth. Be favourable 
to thy servants in the love of God omnipotent and 
in the honour of the holy Martin your intercessor, 
who always has been honoured in the kingdom and 
by the kings of the Franks. 

"We are wont to say in confessing our sins, 
If thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is 
done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? And to 
thee we may say, forasmuch as we know thee 
to be a member of that same Head, if thou wilt 
be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who, 
lord, may abide it ? Above all, because the 
special virtue, goodness, and praise of emperors 
has always been their clemency towards their sub- 
jects; in so much that the most noble emperor 
Titus said that no one should leave the presence 
of the emperor sad. Rejoice the minds of thy 
servants by the highest gift of thy mercy; let 
mercy rejoice against judgement. Men who have 
been guilty of the greatest crimes of perfidy against 
your authority you have been able to pardon with 
laudable piety; overlook our infelicity, in accord- 
ance with the most pious nobility of your most 
holy disposition, which I have always known to 
abound in a marvellous degree in the mind of 

1 Eulogias. Wattenbach and Diimmler gloss this cibos. 
From its original meaning of the consecrated wafer it came 
to mean the pain benit, then any present, and then a saluta- 
tion. There is no clue to its special meaning here. 
R 2 



244 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

your wisdom. We read how David, the ancestor 
of Christ, was praised in the greatness of his 
mercy and the justness of his judgements. In like 
manner we know that your blessedness is, by the 
gift of Christ, always worthy of all laudation and 
praise for these two great merits. 

" May the omnipotent God the Father, by His 
only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, illumine, fill, and 
rejoice the heart of your blessedness with all 
blessing and wisdom in the Spirit the Comforter, 
and deign to grant to your most noble offspring, 
for the welfare of a Christian people, perpetual 
prosperity, most dearly loved lord, best and most 
august father of the fatherland/' 

We know no more than this. There appears to 
be no possibility of carrying the investigation 
further. Reading between the lines we seem to 
see signs of ecclesiastical tension between the arch- 
bishop, seated at his cathedral church of St. Gatian, 
and Abbat Alcuin of St. Martin's. Until the time 
of Alcuin's penultimate predecessor, the abbat of 
St. Martin's had been the archbishop of Tours, 
and, as we have seen, there are curious references 
to a claim of St. Martin's to have bishops of its 
own. This may have caused tension, beyond that 
which was not very improbable under the ordinary 
conditions. 

Theodulf of Orleans was an old friend of Alcuin, 
and an admirer. He gives to Alcuin a large place 
in his description of the court of Charlemagne. 
Theodulf was a laudatory poet, and his poem was 
very properly meant to please those whom he 
described. Of the king himself he says — 



THE POET BISHOP OP ORLEANS. 245 

face, face more shining than gold thrice refined, 

Happy he who always is with thee. 
The head illustrious, the chin, the neck so beautiful, 

The hands of gold, that banish poverty. 
The breast, the legs, the feet, all laudable, 1 

All shining forth in beauty and in strength. 

The latest wife of the king, Luitgard, has eight 
pretty lines devoted to her, after an inauspicious 
opening address to " the fair virago, Luitgard ", 
This dates the poem before 801 ; in which year 
Luitgard died at Tours. The tower of St. Martin's, 
now called the tower of Charlemagne, was raised 
over her tomb. 2 

Alcuin was evidently a very prominent figure at 
court, keeping things alive by his knowledge and 
wit and subtleties. 
And Flaccus too is there, the glory of our poets, 

Who pours forth many things in lyric foot. 
An able sophist, a poet, too, melodious, 

Able in mind and able in practice alike. 
He brings forth pious lessons from Holy Writ, 

And solves the puzzles of numbers with favouring jest. 
He puts an easy question now, and then a hard ; 

Of this world now, then of the world above. 
The king alone, of many that fain would, 

Can solve the skilful puzzles Flaccus sets. 

There was evidently no standing ill-feeling 
against the Abbat of St. Martin's on the part of 
the Bishop of Orleans. 

1 The character of the Latin verse may be gathered from 
the closing words of this hexameter, est non laudabile cui nil. 

2 In another poem Theodulf begs Queen Luitgard to send 
him some oil of balsam, to enable him to compose and con- 
secrate cream for chrism. We must suppose that Luitgard 
had some special connexion with ports to which balsams 
were brought. 

Balsameum regina mihi transmitte liquorem, 
Quo bene per populos chrismatis unguen eat. 

Inde seges crescet tibimet mercedis opimae 
Christicolum nomen cum dabit unguen idem. 



CHAPTER XV 

Alcuin's letters to Charlemagne's sons. — Recension of the 
Bible.— The "Alcuin Bible" at the British Museum.— Other 
supposed "Alcuin Bibles". — Anglo-Saxon Forms of Corona- 
tion used at the coronations of French kings. 

There is in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris 
a letter headed "In nomine Dei summi incipit 
scrip turn Albini magistri ad Karolum imperatorem ". 
It is, however, held to be uncertain whether the 
letter is addressed to the emperor or to his son 
Charles, who died some three years before his 
father. The internal evidence appears to be de- 
cidedly against its having been addressed to the 
emperor. Alcuin could not have denied himself 
the pleasure of referring to the emperor when he 
mentions king David as the authority for his 
advice, and we have no letter of Alcuin to the 
emperor so completely free from honorific titles 
and phrases, with nothing but the simple vos 
throughout. It is to be said on the other hand 
that the author of the Life of the blessed Alchuin 
the Abbat, with which we dealt fully in Chapters I 
and II, refers l to a libeUus which Alcuin wrote for 
Charlemagne, setting forth the psalms which he 
was to use according as penitence, tribulation, or 
joy, was his theme. 

The interest of the letter in question fortunately 

1 See p. 83. 



LETTERS TO CHARLEMAGNE S SONS. 247 

lies in its advice, not in the person to whom the 
advice is given. This is the letter, with its ordi- 
nary heading : — 

" Alcnin dedicates to Charles the Emperor a Ep. 244. 
breviary 1 of prayer to God. 

" The blessed David, the great king and servant 
of God most high, gave ns the rule of singing, 
how man should pour forth prayers to God at 
certain stated hours. ' Seven times a day/ he 
says, ' do I praise Thee,' — that is, at the first hour 
of the day, the second, third, sixth, ninth, the 
evening hour, and the twelfth. David the king, 
then, gave praise to God at these seven hours. 
The holy Daniel, the prophet, at the third, sixth, 
and ninth hour of the clay, went into his chamber 
to pray to the Lord, and with hands stretched 
upward to Heaven entreated God for himself and 
for the people of Israel. The same David said 2 
further, ' I will make mention of Thy righteousness 
only/ And again, ' At midnight I will rise to 
give thanks unto thee,' that is, at the hour of 
night. And again he says, f I have thought upon 
Thy name in the night season/ that is, at cock- 
crow. And, i Have I not remembered Thee in 
my bed, and thought upon Thee when I was 
waking ? ' Here are three courses of the office 
during the night, and seven by day, making the 
ten courses which we sing, following the number 
of the ten laws of Moses. But you have asked me 
to write to you in a net form the order in which 

1 That is, a summary, epitome ; not as yet a service-book. 

2 Ps. lxx. 14. The Vulgate, which Alcuin quotes, has 
more point for his present purpose, acliiciam super omnem 
laudem tuam, "I will add Thy praise above all praise." 



248 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

a layman in active life should pray to God at the 
stated hours. You live after a Christian fashion, 
and you desire to do Christian deeds ; you are not 
ignorant how prayer should be made to the Lord ; 
but at your request I will briefly state my opinion. 
When you have risen from your bed, say first ' O 
Lord Jesu Christ, son of the living God, in Thy 
name will I lift up my hands, make haste to deliver 
me.' Say this thrice, with the psalm { Ponder 
my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. O 
hearken thou unto the voice of my calling, my 
king and my God, for unto Thee will I make my 
prayer. My voice shalt thou hear betimes, O Lord, 
early in the morning will I direct my prayer unto 
Thee.' Then, 'Our Father/ and the prayers, 
c Vouchsafe O Lord to keep us this day/ ' Perfect 
my steps/ f Praised be the Lord daily/ c Direct 
and sanctify,' ' O Lord let Thy mercy lighten 
upon us/ Then, rising, begin the verse 'Thou 
shalt open my lips, O Lord \ When that is ended, 
with the Gloria, begin the psalm 'Lord how are 
they increased '. Then follows ' God be merciful 
unto me '. Then f O come, let us sing unto the 
Lord'. Then psalms, as many as you will/'' 

We have two letters of Alcuin which were cer- 
tainly written to Charles the king, the eldest son 
of Charlemagne. The first was written in 801 to 
congratulate Charles on his anointment as king by 
Leo III on the same day (Christmas Day, 800) 
that saw his father crowned as emperor. 
Ep. 162. " I have heard from the lord apostolic [Leo III] 

that with the consent of the most excellent Lord 
David [Charlemagne] the title of king and the 
crown of kingly dignity have been conferred upon 



LETTERS TO CHARLEMAGNE S SONS. 249 

you. I greatly rejoice in the honour both of the 
title and of the power. I pray that your dignity 
and nobleness may be for the safety of many 
peoples, nations, and churches of Christ ; may be 
glorious in the world and terrible to the adversaries 
of the Christian religion ; may be vigorous and 
strong through a long season of prosperity; and 
with the blessing of God may always follow after 
better things, ascend to higher, and grow even 
unto the perfect day of eternal blessedness. 

"Do justice, my best-loved son, and mercy, 
among Christian people, for it is these, as Solomon 
testifies, that exalt the throne of a kingdom and 
render the kingly power laudable and pleasing to 
God. Have as counsellors men good, pious, prudent, 
and god-fearing ; men in whom truth reigns, not 
covetousness, for the gift blindeth the wise and 
perverteth the words of the righteous. 1 Never 
allow the dishonesty of others to sully the name 
of your dignity, nor permit others to do with 
wicked mind in covetousness that which you would 
not yourself do ; the fault of the subject is often 
imputed to the ruler. Let not the impious will of 
some, under the name of thy beatitude, fill their 
money-bags with the mammon of unrighteousness. 

" Good examples are not far to seek. In the 
home in which you were brought up you have the 
best examples of all goodness. You may have 
perfect confidence that you will by the gift of God 
attain to the blessing of that most excellent and 
in all honour most noble father of thine, ruler and 
emperor of a Christian people, if you strive to 

1 Exod. xxiii. 8. Alcuin reads corda sapientium where the 
Vulgate has prudentes. 



250 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

imitate the manner of his nobility and piety and 
complete discretion; and will most fully obtain 
the mercy of God, which is better than all the 
glory of the world. 

" Wheresoever your way may lead, may the 
footsteps of piety ever follow thee, that you may 
have praise of men and eternal reward with God/'' 

Alcuin must needs end a congratulatory letter 
to a royalty with hexameter and pentameter : — 

Prosperous even for ever be thou great hope of the 

nations. 
Be to thee Christ as love, light, way, and safety, and 

life. 

The next letter to King Charles was probably 
later. It seems to indicate some anxiety on the 
part of Alcuin, and, indeed, Charles was not as fine 
a character as his brother Louis, who is mentioned 
in this letter. Alcuin would appear to have kept 
a copy of the former letter, and to have made 
a good deal of it do service a second time. 
Ep. 245. " I rejoice, my dearest son, in the devotion of 
your good will which Osulf your attendant has 
narrated to me, whether as regards the largeness 
of your alms-giving, or as regards the gentleness 
of your rule. Know of a surety that all this is 
greatly pleasing to God, and deserves at the hand 
of His mercy perpetual blessing. Do thou, my 
son, my dearest son, always to the utmost of your 
power work for the honour of God Almighty in 
all goodness and piety; following the example of 
your most excellent father in all honesty and 
sobriety, that the divine clemency of Christ the 
God may grant to thee to possess his blessing by 
right of inheritance. 



LETTERS TO CHARLEMAGNE S SONS. 251 

'* Be a pious hearer o£ the wretched, and judge 
their cause with the utmost justness. Do not 
permit the judges who are under you to judge 
for presents and gifts ; for gifts, it is said in Holy 
Scripture, blind the hearts of the wise, and subvert 
the words of the just. Hold in honour the servants 
of Christ, those who are true servants of God, for 
some come in sheeps' clothing but inwardly are 
ravening wolves. The Truth says, By their fruits 
ye shall know them. Have as counsellors wise 
men, who fear God ; not flatterers, for a flatterer, 
as it is said, is a bland enemy and often seduces 
those who consent unto him. Be prudent in 
thought and cautious in speech; always setting 
your hope on God, for He never faileth them 
whose hope is set on Him. 

" Would that it were allowed me more fre- 
quently to address a letter of advice to thy 
benignity, as the most noble youth Louis your 
brother has asked me to do frequently for him. 
This I have done, and, if God will, I shall continue 
to do ; he reads my letters with great humility. 

" My greatest joy is when I hear — as, indeed, 
it is right that I should hear — of a good manner 
of life on your part. For this is the gift of God, 
the prosperity of a kingdom, that the rulers of 
a Christian people live most strict lives, and have 
their conversation among men in a way pleasing 
to God. Thus a blessing from heaven is certain 
to come on the nation and kingdom, which may 
God vouchsafe to grant eternally to your nobility. 

"May you flourish, grow, and be strong, ad- 
vancing in all that is good and prosperous, to the 
exaltation of His Holy Church, my dearest son." 



252 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

We have only one of Alcuin's letters to King 1 
Pepin, who died young, leaving a son Bernard 
who became king on his father's death. 
Ep. 77. " To the most noble and beloved son Pippin 

Albinus sends greeting in the love of Christ. 

« \Y e give thanks to thy benevolence and to the 
piety of the lord King who has piously consented 
to our petition concerning the redemption of cap- 
tives. I know that in such works of piety you 
earn blessing and a long and prosperous reign. 

" And do thou, most excellent youth, study to 
adorn nobility of birth by nobility of conduct. 
Strive with all thy power to fulfil the will and 
the honour of the omnipotent God, that His inef- 
fable piety may exalt the throne of thy kingdom 
and extend its bounds, and subject the nations to 
thy power. Be liberal to the wretched, good to 
foreigners, devout in the service of Christ, treat- 
ing honourably His servants and His churches 
that their sedulous prayer may aid thee. Be clean 
in conversation, chaste in body. Rejoice with the 
wife of thy youth and let not other women have 
any part in thee, that the blessing granted unto 
thee may lead to a long posterity of descendants. 

" Be strong against adversaries, faithful to 
friends, humble to Christians, terrible to pagans, 
affable to the wretched, provident in council. Use 
the advice of the old men, the service of the 
young. Let equity be the judgement in thy 
kingdom. Let the praise of God everywhere 
resound at the fitting hours, and especially in the 
presence of thy piety. This kind of devotion to 
the offices of the church will render thee loveable to 
God and honoured among men. Let thoughts of 



ALCUIN S REVISION OP THE SCRIPTURES. 253 

sobriety be in your heart, words of truth in your 
mouth, examples of honour in your conduct, that 
the divine clemency may in all ways exalt and 
preserve thee. 

"I pray you let this letter go with you as a 
testimony of my love. Though it be not worthy 
to be hung at the girdle of thy veneration, yet let 
its admonition be worthy to be stored in the mind 
of thy wisdom/'' 

We must now say something on the part which 
Alcuin played in connexion with the revision of 
the manuscripts of the Bible. 

Alcuin is credited with a revision of the whole 
of the Latin Bible, both the Old Testament and the 
New. We have a letter of his in which he states in 
precise terms that he had been commissioned by 
Karl to correct the corrupted text. The letter is 
addressed to Gisla, Abbess of Chelles, Karl's sister, 
and Rotruda, Karl's daughter, whom he addresses 
as Columba, the Dove. 

( ' I have sent for the solace of your sanctity Ep. 136 
a small book, written in short sections, that you A « D - 800 
may use it during these days * for your holy 
devotion. In such study you best spend these 
most holy days, and especially in the Gospel of the 
blessed John, wherein are the deeper mysteries of 
divinity, and the most holy words of our Lord 
Jesus Christ which He spoke on that night when 
He willed to be betrayed for the salvation of the 
world. 

" I might have sent you an exposition of the 
whole Gospel, if I had not been occupied, by the 

1 The letter was written in Lent. Easter day in 800 was 
April 19. 



254 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

command of the lord king, in the emendation of 
the Old and the New Testament, But if life last 
and God help, I will, when occasion serves, finish 
the task now begun, and dedicate the completed 
work to your name." 
Ep. 137. Gisla and Rotruda sent him a delightfully 

affectionate and bright letter in reply. They liken 
Alcuin to Jerome sending the Scriptures from his 
cave in Bethlehem to Rome; and in begging him 
to send the rest of the commentary on St. John 
they remind him that the shallow Loire is crossed 
with less danger than the Tuscan Sea, and that 
a messenger gets more easily from Tours to Paris 
than from Bethlehem to Rome. 

It is certain from the dedicatory verses of 
Alcuin's which have been preserved, that at least 
four complete copies of the whole Bible had been 
corrected by him or under his direction, and sent 
to the emperor. Of these, not one is known to 
be still in existence. Of one of them Alcuin 
makes definite mention in the following letter : — 
Ep. 205 " To the most desired and entirely loveable 

a.d. 801-3. David the king Albinus wishes present prosperity 
and eternal beatitude in Christ. 

" I have long deliberated upon the question what 
could the devotion of my mind think of as worthy 
to be given towards the splendour of your imperial 
power and the increase of your most rich treasury. 
I feared lest the poor intelligence of my mind 
should remain torpid in empty idleness, while 
others were offering various rich gifts, and the 
messenger of my littleness should come before the 
presence of your beatitude with empty hands. 
I have at length, by the inspiration of the Holy 



ALCUINS REVISION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 255 

Spirit, found something which it is fitting that 
I should send and it may be agreeable to your 
prudence to receive. 

" In the most sacred solicitude of your piety 
it is clear beyond doubt what the Holy Spirit 
works through you for the safety of the whole 
Church, and how earnestly all faithful people 
should pray that your empire be extended to full 
glory, and be loved at home by all God's people, 
and terrible abroad to all the enemies of His Son. 
To my questioning and desiring mind, nothing 
seemed more worthy of your most peace-giving 
honour than a present of the divine books, which 
by the dictation of the Holy Spirit and the minis- 
tration of Christ God have been written by the 
pen of divine grace for the salvation of the whole 
race of man. These, brought together into the 
sanctity of one most clear body, and diligently 
emended, I have sent to your most lofty authority 
by this dearest son of ours and faithful servant of 
yours, that with full hands he may with most joyous 
service stand before your dignity. He has been 
ill for a long time, but now that by God's mercy 
he has to some extent recovered, he has with the 
greatest satisfaction hastened to approach your piety. 

" The small gifts of my tears I send by faithful 
promise in prayer to St. Martin for the ardently 
desired prosperity of your authority. Let my 
messenger serve the most pious lord as is fitting; 
I will pray for the most loved lord as the visitation 
of the Holy Spirit shall' deign to illumine my 
heart. If the devotion of my mind could have 
found anything better, I would with ready will 
offer it towards the increase of your honour. " 



256 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

The messenger was Nathanael, that is, Frede- 
gisus. We learn this from Letter 206, which 
commences "Albinus greets Nathanael", and after 
addressing him as though he were the real Nathanael 
who was seen under the fig-tree by Jesus, proceeds 
thus : — 
Ep. 206. " Salute Lucia my sister and Columba our daugh- 

ter. 1 Pray them to be mindful of my old age in 
sacred prayers and of their own salvation in good 
works. And hide not from them the beauty of 
your wisdom, but irrigate the flower-beds of good 
will in them. What is more beautiful than the 
flowers of wisdom, which never fade ? What is 
richer than the wealth of knowledge, which is 
never exhausted ? To this exhort them. Let them 
live day and night in meditation on the law of God, 
that they may find Him of whom Moses in the 
law wrote, and the prophets. Bid them hold Him 
and not let Him go till they are led into the 
chambers of the King's glory to be supported by 
flowers of eternal blessedness, the Bridegroom's 
left hand of present prosperity under their head, 
and the right hand of eternal bliss embracing 
them. 2 

" Convey the letter of my littleness, with the 
most holy gift of divine Scripture and peaceful 
words of salutation, to my lord David. To him we 
owe as many thanks and praises for all his good- 
ness to me and to my sons as this Book has syllables ; 
to him may God give as many blessings as in this 
Book there are letters."" 

1 These were G-isla, Charlemagne's sister, and Rodtruda, 
his daughter ; see also p. 253. 

2 Adapted from chapters i and ii of Solomon's Song. 



ALCUIN BIBLES. 257 



The natural supposition is that Alcuin brought — 
or had sent — from York accurate copies of the 
Scriptures, from which he corrected the faulty 
manuscripts of France and Germany, to use modern 
names. Errors were due, probably, at least as 
much to mispronunciation on the part of the person 
who dictated to the writers, or to mis-hearing on 
their part, as to carelessness in transcribing. We 
have to remember that the practice was for one monk 
to read out word by word the sentence which the 
writers in the scriptorium were to take down, so 
that in this way twenty or thirty — it is said as 
many as two hundred — copies of a poem or a book 
could be written at the same time. This practice 
gave many opportunities for error. 

We have at the British Museum a magnificent 
Bible, one of the largest manuscripts in existence, 
called Alcuin's Bible. It contains 449 sheets of 
very fine parchment, 20 by 14J inches. It was 
purchased for the Museum in 1836 for £750, the 
price asked at first being £12,000, reduced to 
£6,500 as " an immense sacrifice ". The story of 
its acquisition, and the question of its date and its 
connexion with Alcuin, were stated and discussed 
by Sir F. Madden in the Gentleman s Magazine for 
1836, pages 358 to 363, 468 to 477, 580 to 587. 
That able archaeologist believed it to be of Alcuin's 
own time, and, indeed, to be the very copy which 
Alcuin presented to Charlemagne in 801, on the 
completion of the recension which Karl had en- 
trusted to him. The evidence in favour of this 
view is found on the last page of the MS., in some 
elegiac verses composed by Alcuin. The verses 
begin with an appeal from the book itself to its 



258 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



readers that it may be called a Pandect, and not 
a Bibliotheca \ and after eight more verses, in which 
it is called a Codex, they end as follows : — 
Mercedes habeat, Christo donante, per aevum 

Is Carolus qui iam scribere iussit eum. 
Haec dator aeternus cunctorum, Christe, bonorum 

Munera de donis accipe sancta tuis, 
Quae Pater Albinus, devoto pectore supplex, 

Nominis ad laudes obtulit ecce tui ; 
Quern tua perpetuis conservet dextra diebus, 

Ut felix tecum vivat in arce poli. 
Pro me quisque legas versus orare memento, 
Alchuine dicor ego. Tu sine fine vale. 

"May Charles, who bade this book be written, 
receive eternal rewards. May the giver of all good 
accept this offering of His own gifts, which Father 
Albinus has made, whom may Thy hand preserve 
to live with Thee. Thou who readest these verses, 
remember to pray for me ; my name is Alchuine ; 
may est thou for ever fare well." 

That these verses were written in the great 
Pandect of Alcuin's recension, which Alcuin pre- 
sented to Charlemagne, we may take to be certain. 
But we may also take it as certain that they would 
be written also in copies made from that special 

1 Nomine pandecten proprio vocitare memento 
Hoc corpus sacrum, lector, in ore tuo. 
Quid nunc a multis constat bibliotheca dictum 
Nomine non proprio, ut lingua pelasga probat. 
A pandect was the whole Bible, Old and New Testament, as 
its name, " containing everything," implies. A bibliotheca, 
like our word " library," meant both a room or case where 
books were stored, and also the collection of books in the 
place ; hence it might be used for the pandect, on the 
ground that it was a collection of all the books of the Bible . 



ALCUIN BIBLES. 259 



Pandect; and it has been decided by the most 
competent modern critics that the Bible in the 
Museum was not written till a generation had 
passed away after Alcuin's death. 

That the verses were entered in other copies also 
is certain. The Fathers of the Oratory delta Valli- 
cella at Rome had a copy of this recension, which 
was believed to be written by Alcuin's own hand 
and presented to Charlemagne. In it there is a long 
copy of verses, including those in the Museum 
Bible, but with curious alterations and additions, 
which make it probable that the Vallicella Bible 
was written for Charlemagne's grandson, Charles 
le Chauve. Quae Pater Albimis devoto pectore sup- 
plex is altered into Quae tibi devoto Carolus rex 
pectore supjrfex, and verses are added, stating that 
the Bible was written for a new church which 
Charles had just built. The alteration cuts out the 
personal note of Alcuin, and the addition cuts out 
Charlemagne and points to another Charles. This 
is far from being the only case in which confusion 
is caused by the fact that Charlemagne was himself 
for many years Charles the king; that his oldest 
son was Charles the king ; that his grandson was 
Charles the king ; as also two great grandsons, 
a great great grandson, and even two generations 
further still. 

Others besides Alcuin and the royal family were 
interested in the various versions of Scripture. For 
example, his contemporary Theodulf, the learned 
bishop of Orleans, sent to his own daughter Gisla 
a psalter, radiant with silver and gold, with both 
the earlier and the later versions of Jerome. 

Our use of the word Graduate for the book con- 
s2 



260 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

taming the words and the music sung by the choir 
at the service of the Mass is an evidence of the 
large part played by the Gallican Church in the 
arrangement and improvement of the early mediaeval 
service books. Rome spoke of the Antiphonale 
Missarum and Antiphonale Horarum, while Gaul 
spoke of the Graduale for Mass Music and 
Antiphonale for the Music of the Hours. Under 
Alcuin's guiding hand, the influence of Charlemagne 
and his times upon the services was wide and deep. 
In the document described as Ep. 31, a.d. 794, 
Karl has a good deal to say about the success of 
his own efforts to put down irregular methods of 
singing the services, and to bring all into general 
accord with the Roman method. 1 Alcuin's work 
re-acted upon the Roman use itself, and is under- 
stood to have been the operating cause of the mark 
left upon it. 

Alcuin had strong opinions as to the best 
manner of singing the services. In a letter to 
Eanbald II, he writes thus, for the benefit of the 
Ep. 72 Church of York : — " Let the clergy chant with 
a. d. 796. moderated voice, striving to please God rather 
than men. An immoderate exaltation of voice is 
a sign of boastfulness. And let them not be 
above learning the Roman Orders of Service, that 
they may have eternal benediction from the 
blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles, whom Our 
Lord Jesus Christ made the head of His elect 
flock." 

Alcuin was versed in secular music also. We 
learn from Ep. 100 that Karl had asked him to 

1 Wattenbach and Diimmler, 223-4. 



ANGLO-SAXON CORONATION FORMS. 261 

write peaceful and soothing songs, both words and 
music, for soldiers to sing when engaged in the 
horrors of war, and that he complied with the 
request. 

We have some very interesting evidences of the 
borrowing of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts for use in 
France, and of the influence of Anglo-Saxon forms 
on French services. There are two Anglo-Saxon 
forms for the coronation of a king. One of these 
is found in the Pontifical of Ecgbert, the Bishop 
and later the Archbishop of York, to which a date 
of about 745 may be given. It is merely the 
supplement to the Mass on the occasion of a coro- 
nation, and accordingly it does not give the details 
of the ceremony. The other is a later form, and 
it gives at length the details of the ceremony, one 
of the longest prayers describing the king as raised 
to the royal throne of the Angles and Saxons. 
But, curiously enough, we learn the most interest- 
ing parts of the ceremony of crowning an Anglo- 
Saxon king, not from this manuscript, but from 
three manuscripts of the form for the coronation 
of a king of the French. The first of these to be 
mentioned is a manuscript form of an Abbat of 
Corbie. In it we find the prayer for " This thy 
servant whom with suppliant devotion we elect 
equally to the kingdom of the whole of Albion, 
that is to say, of the Franks . . . That he may 
nourish and teach the Church of the whole of 
Albion, with the peoples committed to his charge ", 
Here it would appear that a marginal note had 
been added to the Anglo-Saxon form at the first 
mention of " Albion " f " that is to say, of the 
Franks," and has afterwards been incorporated in 



2G2 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



one place and not in the other. The " elect 
equally " indicates that the form was used for an 
Anglo-Saxon king who claimed to be king of the 
whole land, while yet the old division into three 
main nations was fresh in mind. 1 It is a further 
evidence in favour of this being an Anglo-Saxon 
form, that the only saint mentioned besides the 
Blessed Virgin and St. Peter is " Holy Gregory, 
Apostolic of the Angles ". In the preparation of 
the Sens Order, to be mentioned later, this flaw 
had been discovered, and St. Denys and St. Remy 
put in the place of St. Gregory. 

In a manuscript in the National Library of 
Paris, we have a second Order for the Coronation 
of a King of the Franks, which is indubitably an 
Anglo-Saxon Order. The following phrases occur : 
" This thy servant whom with suppliant devotion 
we elect equally . . . That the sceptre desert not 
the royal throne, that is to say, of the Saxons, 
Mercians, and Northumbrians (Nordanchimbro- 
rum) . . . That supported by the due subjection of 
both of these peoples . . i} 

In a third Order for the Coronation of French 
Kings, from the Pontifical of the illustrious 
Church of Sens, we find the prayer " that the 
sceptre desert not the royal throne, that is to say, 
of the Saxons, Mercians, and Northumbrians 
(Nordan Cymbrorum) ", and " that the king, sup- 
ported by the due subjection of both these 
peoples . . ". 

It may be added that the French Benedictional 
of Archbishop Robert, now at Rouen, has the 



1 See on this point pp. 86-9. 



ANGLO-SAXON CORONATION FORMS. 263 

form " Angles and Saxons ". So late as 1364 
Charles V of France was crowned with a form 
which named the throne as that of the Saxons, 
Mercians, and Northchimbrians ; while at the 
same time the peers of Guienne swore to protect 
him against the king of England, his people, and 
allies. 1 

1 See my Anglo-Saxon Coronation Forms, and the use of the 
word Protestant in the Coronation Oath, S. P. C. K. 



CHAPTEE XVI 



Examples of Alcuin's style in his letters, allusive, jocose, 
playful. — The perils of the Alps. — The vision of Drithelme. 
— Letters to Arno. — Bacchus and Cupid. 



A letter written by Alcuin in September, 799, 
may be taken as an extreme example of his 
allusive style. A good deal of interpretation is 
needed before the letter can be understood ; it is 
a collection of riddles. 

The opening" sentence runs thus : " The first 
letter to the first, and the fifteenth to the sixth. 
The number consecrated in steps to the number 
perfect in the works of God." 

The first letter is A, and thus the first words 
mean A(lcuin) to A(dalhard), Abbat of Corbie, 
or Arno, Archbishop of Salzburg ; but inasmuch 
as A is described in the letter as gallus monasticiis, 
and Arno was Aquila, we must understand that 
the Abbat of Corbie is meant. No other known 
A satisfies the conditions. The fifteenth letter is 
P, the sixth is F, and therefore we have P(ater) 
F(ilio), the father to the son. The Psalms of De- 
grees are fifteen, the day of completion of the 
works of God in creation was the sixth, and there- 
fore the concluding words are only a repetition 
of " father to son ". 



265 

"Why does that brother come with empty 
hands? In his tongue he brought a Hail! to 
my ears ; in his hands he brought nothing to my 
eyes. Thou who art seated at a dividing of the 
ways [Corbie], why hast thou demanded nothing 
certain of him who dwelleth in Maresa ? The 
crows fly about the roofs of the houses and cry 
out; and the dove, nourished on the pavements 
of the church, is silent. I should have trusted 
that dove had he said anything about the eagle 
[Leo III] which lately deserted the roofs of the 
citadel of Home to drink at the fountains of 
the Saxon land [the Pope had come to Paderborn] 
to see the lion [Karl] ; or if our blackbird, flying 
between them, had demanded of the monastic 
cock [Adalhard] who rouses the brethren to their 
matin watch, that by means of him the sparrow 
[Alcuin] sitting alone upon the house top might 
know what is the convention between the lion 
and the eagle; and if the youth of the eagle, as 
the psalmist prophesies, is renewed l to pristine glad- 
ness ; and if new dwellings grow up in the marshes 
of perfidy that were cleansed 2 ; and if the lion, in 
pursuit of the ibex, meditates crossing the heights 
of the Alps. 

" The sparrow hath his ears open. But I see 
that the proverbial wolf [this is said to mean the 
devil] in the fable 3 has taken away the cock's 
voice ; lest it happen that if he crowed, the apos- 

1 That is, if the Pope has recovered from the attempt to 
blind him and cut out his tongue. 

2 Presumably, if new charges are made against the Pope. 

3 A reference to Pliny's Natural History, where wolves 
are credited with this power ; see also Virgil, Eel. ix. 53, 54. 



266 ALCUIN OF YOKK. 



tolic denial 1 should be renewed in the city of his 
former power, and the last error be worse than 
the first. 

" Why has love sinned, which has not seen Vale 
[fare thee well] written, while I hear that the 
partridges [messengers], running across the fields, 
have come to the dwelling [Corbie] of the cock. 
Perfect love driveth away fear. Perfect love with 
the sparkling pupils of the eyes sees everything, 
and with the clear intuition of piety will always 
find a fixed rule of wholesome counsel. It would 
seem that the cock is turned into a cuckoo, which 
is silent when the sun ascends into the summer 
constellation of the crab, while the nest-making 
sparrow at every season alike twitters on the smoky 
roofs. 2 

"That sparrow now in this September month 
flies to revisit his beloved nest 3 , that he may feed 
his young 4 , gaping with hungry beaks, with little 
grains of piety : desiring that some time on the 
banks of this river Loire, rich in fish, he may hear 
the voice of the cock sounding forth the Vale, and 
that he who with flapping of his wings rouses him- 
self to matutinal melodies may come and exhort 
the sparrow in the midst of his young." 

At this point the letter changes its character, 
and we need not follow it further. 

Thus Alcuin could write a jocose letter, even 

1 A reference to Leo's denial of the charges against him 
at Paderborn, and also to St. Peter's denial. We must credit 
Alcuin with having seen that he would be taken to mean 
that one was as true as the other. The denial was renewed 
at Rome, see p. 189. 

2 See p. 208. s st> Martin's at Tours. 
4 His pupils. 



AXCUIN S STYLES. 267 

quoting Scripture in that vein. Let us see 
another. He was detained in Britain at the end 
of the year 790 by an unexpected event, of which 
mention has already more than once been made. 
Ethelred, the king of Northumbria, had been de- 
posed and kept in prison till the end of 790. 
Alcuin wrote to his pupil Joseph, in Gaul, to tell 
him that Ethelred had passed from prison to throne, 
from misery to majesty; and things were so un- 
settled that he did not like to leave for France. 
He was evidently not well supplied with money, 
food, or clothing. He begged Joseph to send him Ep. 16 
what was necessary for the sea voyage; also five A,D * 79 °- 
pounds weight of silver which he had sent to his 
charge, and another five from his possessions in 
France ; three garments, of goat-skin and of wool 
for the use of his attendants, lay and clerical, and 
of linen for his own use ; also black and red cloaks 
of goat skin, if he could find such, and many pig- 
ments of sulphur and colours for pictures. Then he 
turns to the question of meat and drink. Quoting 
2 Kings iv. 40, he exclaims, " c O, thou man of 
God, there is death in the pot ', for [again quoting, 
from 1 Sam. ix. 7, and putting wine in place of 
bread] the wine 'is spent in our vessels 3 : and 
[he adds] the acid beer of these parts makes havoc 
in our stomachs/' 

Here is another example of his playfulness and 
lightness of touch. 

" To the most illustrious man Flavius Damoeta Ep. 9 
Albinus sends abundant greeting of perpetual A,D * 783 " 
peace/'' 

This was Riculfus, Archbishop of Mainz, 
whom in another letter he addresses as the great Ep. 12. 



268 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

fisherman, probably because of piscatorial rights 
which he naturally had as a riparian proprietor. 
Alcuin himself — we may note — was a fisherman. 

Ep. 101. He writes to Arno in 798, from Tours, that he 
does not know in which of two places he will be 
the next month, but whichever it was it would 
find him fishing-. " I know not whether I shall play 
the diver on the banks of the Meuse and catch 
fish, or float on the waters of the Loire and catch 
salmon/'' There are salmon now both in the Meuse 
and in the Loire ; but the phrases in Alcum's letter 
•seem to point to bottom-fishing 1 on the Meuse and 
surface-fishing on the Loire. Alcuin learned to fish 
on the Ouse at York, of which he writes, as we 
have seen above 1 , " Hanc piscosa suis undis inter- 
luit Usa." We must return to Letter 9. 

" I greatly rejoice in your welfare, and am much 
delighted with your loving present, sending you as 
many thanks as I have counted teeth in your gift. 
It is a wonderful animal, with two heads, and with 
sixty teeth, not of elephantine size but of the 
beauty of ivory. I am not terrified by the horror 
of this beast, but delighted by its appearance; I 
have no fear of its biting me with gnashing teeth. 
I am pleased with its fawning caresses, which 
smooth the hair of my head. I see not ferocity 
in its teeth; I see only the love of the sender." 

Carmen Alcuin afterwards made this ivory comb the 

ccxix, ed. subject of a poetic riddle : — 



Quercet. 



A beast has sudden come to this my house, 
A beast of wonder, who two heads has got, 
And yet the beast has only one jaw-bone. 
Twice three times ten of horrid teeth it has 

1 See p. 72. 



THE ALPS. 269 



Its food grows always on this body of mine, 
Not flesh, not fruit. It eats not with its teeth, 
Drinks not. Its open mouth shows no decay. 
Tell me, Damoeta dear, what beast is this? 

We can imagine the beauty o£ this ivory comb, 
with one row of sixty teeth/ the solid piece at the 
top being ornamented with a lion's head at each 
end looking outwards. A hundred years later, the 
comb, if made in Northumbria, might have had 
a ridged top, with two bears' heads, the muzzles 
looking inwards. It was, no doubt, this beautiful 
comb that played a large part in the miracles 
wrought by Alcuin after his death, as described at 
page 49. 

Considering the frequent passings to and fro 
across the Alps in Alcuin' s time by Karl, and, 
indeed, by Alcuin himself, and the coming and 
going* between Salzburg, Arno's see, and Gaul, 
we should have expected more reference to the 
hardships of the way than we find in the letters 
of Alcuin. 

In writing to Remedius or Remigius, the Bishop 
of Chur, or Coire, a place very well known now, 
he makes no reference to any difficulty in reaching 
the city. It was, as we know, a place of con- 
siderable importance, and it possesses to this day 
some very interesting Carolingian charters. The 
only local allusion which Alcuin makes in his 
various letters to Eemedius informs us of the 

1 It is a curious coincidence that the ivory comb found in 
St. Cuthbert's coffin, provided by Westone after the Norman 
Conquest, had— as nearly as we can count — sixty teeth, 
sixteen large and forty-four small. Alcuin's comb may have 
had the same double row of teeth, with a knob in the shape 
of a lion's head projecting from the ends of the central ivory. 



270 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

heavy tolls charged by those who held the passes, 
a matter about which our King Canute spoke so 
strongly to the Pope. 
Ep. 213. " By this letter I commend to your fatherly 

protection this merchant of ours, who is conveying 
merchandise to Italy. Let him have safe passage 
over the roads of your land in going and in 
returning. And in the defiles of the mountains 
let him not be troubled by your officers of custom, 
but by the freedom of your charity let him have 
free passage/' 

The inconsiderable references which we do find 
to the difficulties of the way come chiefly in the 
addresses of his letters. Thus he addresses a letter 
to Arno, Archbishop of Salzburg, in these words: — 
Ep. 91. " To the eagle that flies across the Alps ; goes 

swiftly over the plains ; stalks through the cities ; 
a humble inhabitant of the earth sends greeting." 

" To Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquileia. 
Ep. 129. " Four friends send greeting across the waters of 

the Alps in a ship laden with love." 
Ep. 200. " To Peter, Archbishop of Milan. 

"O that I had the wings of an eagle, that I 
might fly across the heights of the Alps swifter 
than the winds." 

In his Life of Willibrord, 1 cap. xxxii, he says : — 

"The Alps of St. Maurice are exalted more 
felicitously by the blood of the Theban saints than 
by the height of their snows." 
Ep. 151. To Arno. 

"To my father, of most sweet love, the eagle 
prelate, a swan from across the sea sends wishes 

1 Monumenta Alcuiniana, Wattenbach and Diimmler, p. 63. 



THE ALPS. 271 



for perpetual health with the pen-feathers of holy 
affection/'' 

To Arno. E P . 134. 

"To the eagle, of all the birds of the Alpine 
heights most dear, Albinus sends greeting." 

To Arno. Ep. 126. 

' ' A love which neither the cold of the Alps nor 
the heat of Italy can overthrow." 

To Arno. Ep. 101. 

"I long to hear when the eagle, flying high, 
transcends the summits of the Alps, and, wearied 
with flight, composes its wings in the parts of 
Rhetia." 

It will have been noticed that most of these are 
addressed to the Tyrol. It may be remarked that 
there are traditions of the presence of Karl in the 
far east of the Alps, especially in a valley about 
twenty miles due west of the city of Trent. 
Mr. D. W. Freshfield has printed 1 the long Latin 
inscription which gives an explanation of frescoes 
in the Church of San Stefano in Val Rendena, 
showing Karl and a Pope baptizing heathen. The 
inscription credits the district with having been 
full, in Karl's time, of castles held by pagan lords 
or by Jews, who were converted or slain. 

We have an interesting evidence of the suffer- 
ings endured in crossing the Alps in the later 
Anglo-Saxon times. It is well known that persons 
who granted charters of lands, under conditions, 
invoked desperate penalties on the heads of any 
who should attempt to alienate the lands or trifle 
with the conditions. In the reigns of Athelstane 

1 Italian Alps, Longmans, 1875, Appendix D, pp. 371-3. 



272 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

and Eadmund, under dates ranging from a. d. 938 
to 946, a West Saxon scribe produced and em- 
ployed frequently a new form and idea of curse. 
He made the royal and archiepiscopal signatories 
indulge in the pious and fervent wish that any 
one who endeavoured to violate the gift set forth 
in the charter might suffer from the cold blasts 
of the ice-fields and the pennine host of malignant 
spirits 1 . 

William of Malmesbury relates 2 the death of 
an Archbishop of Canterbury from cold in the 
passage of the Alps. When Odo died in 959, 
Aelfsin, the Bishop of Winchester, bought the 
archbishopric and behaved with mad violence. He 
stamped on the grave of Odo, addressing him as 
" worst of old men ", taunting him that he had got 
his desire (which Odo had always opposed), namely, 
the succession to the archbishopric. That night 
the departed Odo appeared to him in a dream and 
warned him of a speedy end. Aelfsin disregarded 
the warning, and set off to Rome for the pallium. 
On the way across the Alps he was overcome with 
cold. His feet were frost-bitten, and there was no 
remedy but to put them into the warm carcasses 
of disembowelled horses, these feet with which he 
had done violence to the grave of Odo. Even so 
he could not get warm, and he was frozen to death. 
His death made way for Dunstan, and he is not 
reckoned among the archbishops. 

The misery of extreme cold was a familiar fact 

1 Kemble, Cod. Dipl. ii. 208-62. Coolidge, Swiss Travel, 160. 
''Perpessus sit gelidis glacierum (and glaciai -urn) flatibus, et 
pennino exercitu malignorum spirituum. 1 ' 

2 Gcsta Pontificum, Rolls series, pp. 25, 26, 265. 



THE ALPS. 273 



to the Northumbrians after the experiences of 
Benedict Biscop and others in crossing the Alps. 
It is brought out in a very graphic way in the 
description which Bede gives of the trance of one 
Drithelme l , who had appeared to be dead for six 
hours. Among other remarkable visions of the 
other world, he came in his trance to a valley, on 
one side of which was piercing cold, and on the 
other unquenchable fire. The unhappy souls, tor- 
tured in the biting cold, leaped madly across for 
warmth into the flames. Then, scorched in the 
fearful heat, they sprang back again for coolness 
into the torturing cold. In that continual alter- 
nation of tortures their time was spent. Drithelme 
was wont ever after, in beating down his animal 
passions, to stand up to his neck in the river, even 
in winter with broken masses of ice dashing 
against him. And when one called to him from 
the bank, " I wonder, brother Drithelme, that you 
endure such cold/'' he would reply, " I, at least, 
have seen worse cold than this.''' 

Here is a peep behind the scenes in connexion 
with the morals of a Pope, and an example of 
wisdom in burning letters that ought not to see 
the light. Alcuin is writing to Arno. 

" You were the third cause of my [proposed] Ep. 127 
journey. The first was that of the churches of A * D - 799 - 
Christ. The second was that of the lord king, 
because mourning in tears I left him; my desire 
being to inscribe on my soul a perpetual memory of 
the joy of his presence. The third was the long- 
ing to see the most sweet face of your dearness. 

1 See my Lessons from Early English Church History, pp. 45, 46. 
T 



274 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

But I am prevented from accomplishing that which 
I have strongly wished to accomplish. It will come 
to pass through your holy prayers, if it do but please 
Him without whom nothing good can be done. 

"Your former letter 1 , which reached us under 
your name, contained some complaints about the 
manner of life of the apostolic 2 and about the 
danger you were in when with him by reason of 
the Romans. Your clerk Baldric, as I suppose, 
brought it, bringing also a cope stitched together 
in the Roman fashion, a vestment of linen and 
wool. As I did not wish that your letter should 
fall into other hands, Candidus alone read it with 
me; and then I put it in the fire, lest any scandal 
should arise through carelessness on the part of the 
keeper of my papers. 

u I would gladly write more, but the runner has 
your orders to get back quickly." 

Nothing could exceed the affectionateness of 
AlcuhVs letters to Arno, the Archbishop of Salz- 
burg, to whose care in preserving the letters 
addressed to him we owe so much. Arno's name 
recalled to Alcuin's mind the early days when he 
saw hovering in the Yorkshire skies the great 
eagles that gave their Anglian name of earn (am) 
to Arncliffe and other places. He always thought 
of him as the Arn, addressed him as the Aquila, 
the eagle. 
E 108 "To the Eagle, most noble of birds, the Goose, 

a. d. 708. with strident voice, sends greeting. 

" When I heard of you as winging your way 

1 Written from Rome; not preserved. - Leo III. 



ALCUINS LETTEKS TO AENO. 275 

from transalpine hills to your nest of sweetest 
quiet, a great repose shone suddenly forth upon 
my mind anxious on your account. My mind flew 
back, as from crashing storms, to a haven of placid 
peace. For love is wont to be joyful in prosperity 
and oppressed in adversity. Thus it is that the 
voice of the bride, bewailing the absence of the 
longed-for spouse, cries 'I am wounded with love''. 1 
For both are true : your love wounds, and it heals. 
One part of the wound inflicted by love remains an 
open sore, your longed-for face has not yet beamed 
upon the eyes of your lover. The anxiety of not 
knowing that you were well has been removed 
from my mind, but the hunger of the eyes is not 
yet appeased by the sight of your countenance. 
This Sorrow we trust may very soon be taken 
away, by the ministry of that grace which has 
deigned to remove the anxiety of mind by the 
arrival of your letters; and then he who desires 
both health and vision will be full of joy in the 
arrival of yourself. 

' ' You have written to me of the religious life 
and justness of the lord apostolic 2 , what great and 
unjust trials he suffers at the hands of the children 
of discord. I confess that I glow with great joy 
that the father of the churches sets himself about 
the service of God with pious and faithful mind, 
without guile. No wonder that justice suffers per- 
secution in his person at the hands of evil men, 
when in our Chief, the fount of all goodness and 
justice, the God Christ, justice suffered persecution 
even unto death/' 



1 See p. 281 note. 2 Leo III, see p. 188. 

T2 



276 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

After referring sympathetically to Arno's com- 
plaints that his life has been a very unquiet one 
of late, by reason of much travelling, Alcuin con- 
tinues : — 

" There is one journey upon which I wish that 
you would enter. Would that I could see you 
praying in the venerable temple of blessed Martin 
our protector, that thy supplication and ours might 
restore my strength, that by Christ's mercy the 
pious consolation of love might advance us both on 
the way of perpetual beatitude. How this may 
come about, let your providence consider. If the 
opportunity of the present year does not grant to 
us our will, by reason of the hindrance of affairs, 
may we meet in quiet times and at a quiet season, 
after Easter of next year, at St. Amand 1 . The 
frequent infirmity of my poor little body would 
make a long journey very fatiguing to me in the 
storms of winter."" 

Arno could himself write a genial and affectionate 
letter. One of his letters to the Cuckoo 2 has been 
preserved : — 
Ep. 287. " Kartula die : Cuculus valeat per saeeula nostra. 
To the very dear bird the Cuckoo the Eagle sends 
greeting. 

"Be mindful of thyself and of me. Do what 
I have enjoined, accomplish what you have pro- 
mised. Be gentle and true to our father [Alcuin], 
obedient and devoted to God. Love Him who 
has raised thee from the mire and set thee to stand 

1 There were two monasteries with this dedication. One 
of these, Iuvavense, was at Salzburg, and probably it is the one 
to which reference is made. 

2 See p. 168. 



ARNo's LETTER TO CUCULUS. 277 



before princes. Stand like a man against your 
adversary ; go higher, never lower ; advance, never 
fall back. 

"I have dipped my pen in love to write this letter. 
Rise, rise, most pleasing bird. The winter is pass- 
ing away; the rains have gone; the flowers are 
showing on the earth ; the time of song has come. 
Let your friends — that is, the angelic dignities — 
hear your voice. Your voice is sweet to them, may 
your appearance be fair in the eyes of the Lord thy 
God, who desires your presence/'' 

The Cuckoo's enemy, against whom he was to 
fight manfully, was drink. He was evidently a 
very sweet and sympathetic singer at the frequent 
feasts, 1 and was not sufficiently careful in respect 
of strong drink. Alcuin's Carmen 277 mourns in 
forty-eight lines the absence of the Cuckoo, gone 
they did not know where. Some of the lines are 
significant : " Ah me ! if Bacchus has sunk him in 
that pestiferous vortex ! " And again : u Alas ! that 
impious Bacchus, I suppose, is entertaining him, 
Bacchus who desires to subvert all hearts. Weep 
for the Cuckoo, weep all for the Cuckoo. He left 
us in triumph, in tears he will return. Would that 
we had the Cuckoo, even in tears; for then with 
the Cuckoo we could weep/'' 

Though himself a judge of wine, with a decided 
preference for good and ripe wine, Alcuin was 
a determined advocate for strict temperance. Total 

1 It is probable that he was called Cuckoo from the refrain 
of some favourite song of his. The Teutonic name for the 
" bird of spring " was not a likely personal name, any more 
than cuckoo is with us. 



278 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

abstinence was not his idea of temperance. Of 
another temptation of the physical senses he says 
surprisingly little ; indeed, he hardly ever refers to 
it. In Carmen 260, To his brothers of York, a poem 
with a charming description of spring in its open- 
ing verses, he gives to the younger brethren a very 
direct warning on both of these physical tempta- 
tions 1 : — i 

" Let not the tipsy Bacchus cast his fetters upon 
you, nor, noxious, wipe out the lessons engraved on 
your minds. Nor let that wicked Cretan boy, armed 
with piercing darts, drive you from the citadel of 
safety/'' 

The conversion of Arno into Aquila was very 
natural to a Yorkshireman. In several cases we 
can only guess at the Teutonic names which Alcuin 
translated into Latin; for example, Gallicellulus 
(Ep. 260). In two cases, at least, he translates 
into Greek. Cambridge men who remember with 
much affection their private tutor in Mathematics, 
William Walton, will remember his skill in thus 
rendering names; his Prosgennades still survives, 
known to the world as Atkinson. With Alcuin, 
Hechstan becomes Altapetra. The abbess Adaula 
evidently had a Teutonic name. Anthropos was his 
friend Monna. Stratocles had some such name as 
Heribercht. Epistle 282 is addressed, very near 
the end of his life, " to my best-loved friends in 
Christ, brother and son, Anthropos and Stratocles, 
the humble levite Alchuine sends greeting." Epistle 
283, of the same late date, is addressed " to my 
dearest son Altapetra, the levite Albinus sends 

1 See also Epistle 186 in Appendix A. 



TRANSLATIONS OF NAMES. 279 

greeting". In the course of this letter to Hechstan, 
Alcuin sends greetings and requests for prayers to 
two friends whose names would not fall very easily 
into Latin, Scaest and Baegnod, the latter a com- 
mon Anglo-Saxon name, usually in the form 
Beagnoth, with the final d aspirated. It occurs 
in runes on a knife in the British Museum, and is 
found in Kent and Wessex. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Grammatical questions submitted to Alcuin by Karl. — 
Alcuin and Eginhart. — Eginhart's description of Charle- 
magne. — Alcuin's interest in missions. — The premature 
exaction of tithes. — Charlemagne's elephant Abulabaz. — 
Figures of elephants in silk stuffs. — Earliest examples of 
French and German. — Boniface's Abrenuniiatio Diaboli. — 
Early Saxon. — The earliest examples of Anglo-Saxon prose 
and verse. 

In many of Alcuin's letters we find answers or 
allusions to questions addressed to him by Karl. 
In Epistle 253 Alcuin writes twelve paragraphs to 
the emperor in answer to twelve questions. In 
Epistle .252 he writes to Homer (Angilbert), who 
has been commanded by the emperor to consult 
him on the gender of the word rubus and on the 
difference in meaning of despicere and dispicere. 
In regard to rubus 3 he sums up a long list of 
authorities on both sides by the correct remark 
that a bramble must not be counted as a tree, and 
therefore rubus follows the ordinary rule of words 
ending in us and is masculine. On the difference 
between despicere and dispicere he has much to 
write, and in the course of his letter he makes 
free use of quotations from the Greek. From 
Epistle 254 we find that Charlemagne had in- 
quired, through Candidus, as to the distinction 
between aeteruum and sempitemum ; perpetuum and 
inmortale ; saeculum, aevuw, and tempus. In Epistle 
240, a very long letter, he writes to the emperor 
in reply to his inquiry as to the force of a question 
put by the Greek master — an Athenian sophist — 
about the price of human salvation. 



ALCUIN AND EGINHART. 281 

Considering the large part which the annalist 
Eginhart played in the administrative work of 
Charlemagne's reign, as secretary to the king and 
emperor, it is remarkable that we find only one 
reference to him in Alcuin's letters. This one 
reference is affectionate in tone, and gives no reason 
at all for supposing that Alcuin was jealous of the 
quick and skilful secretary. The reference occurs 
in Ep. 112, A. d. 799, a letter addressed to Karl 
by Alcuin. The letter itself is of so interesting 
a character that the opportunity of giving it in its 
entirety should not be lost. From its contents we 
gather that Alcuin had sent to Karl a treatise 
which he had hastily dictated and had not read 
over and corrected. Karl had noted errors in the 
writing and punctuation, and had sent it back to 
be corrected, a charming piece of discipline which 
raises Karl higher than ever in our appreciative 
regard. 

" To the most pious and excellent lord king Ep. 112 
David, Flaecus wounded l with the pen of love A * D - 799, 
sends greeting. 

"We give thanks to your venerable piety that 
you have caused to be read to the ears of your 
wisdom the booklet sent to you in accordance with 
the injunction of your command; and that you 
have had errors in it noted, and have sent it back 
for correction. It would, however, have been 

1 Here, and in Ep. 108, to Arno, Alcuin combines two 
phrases from the Song of Solomon, v. 7 and 8 : " The watch- 
men have wounded me," " I am sick of love." In the letter 
to Arno he appears to quote the actual words of a text in 
his possession : vulnerata karitate ego sum ; in the present letter 
he writes caritatis. calamo vulneratus sum. The Vulgate has 
vulneraverunt me— amove langueo. See p. 275. 



282 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



better corrected by yourself, because in any work 
the judgement of another is most frequently of 
more value than that of the actual author. 

"You have done somewhat less than the full 
office of love demanded, in that you have not in 
like manner noted opinions not learnedly set forth 
or catholically worked out. I have a suspicion 
that your letter indicates that not all which is 
written in my booklet has your approval. For 
you have directed a defence of the work to be sent 
to your excellency, whereas my poor words could 
have no defender or emender better than yourself. 
The authority of him who commands should defend 
the work of him who obeys. 

' ' That the booklet does not run so scholarly in 
letter and punctuation as the order and rule of the 
art of grammar demands is no unusual effect of 
rapidity of thought, while the mind of the reader 
forestalls the action of the eyes. Wearied with a 
bad headache I cannot examine the words which 
flow by a sudden rush from my mouth as I dictate ; 
and one who is not willing to impute to himself 
the negligence of another should not impute negli- 
gence to another. 

" The account of the disputation of Felix with 
a Saracen I have not seen, nor can we find it 
here; indeed I never heard of it before. But in 
the course of very diligent inquiry whether any 
of our people have heard of its existence, I have 
been told that it might be found with Laidrad the 
Bishop of Lyon. I have at once sent a messenger 
to the said bishop in order that if it can be found 
there it may be sent as quickly as possible to your 
presence. 



ALCITIN TO KARL. 283 

"When I went as a young- man to Rome, and 
spent some days in the royal city of Pa via, a certain 
Jew, Lullus by name, had a disputation with Master 
Peter, and I heard in the same city that there was 
a written record of the controversy. This was 
the same Peter who with such clearness taught 
grammar in your palace 1 . Perhaps our Homer 2 
has heard something about it from him. 

11 1 have sent to' your excellency some modes of 
expression, supported by examples or verses from 
venerable fathers, and also some figures of arith- 
metical subtlety for your amusement, on the blank 
part of the paper which you have sent to us; in 
order that what offered itself to our eye naked 
may come back to you clothed. It seemed right 
that paper which came to us ennobled by your seal 
should receive honour from our letters. And if 
any of the said forms of expression are inadequately 
supported by examples, Beselel 3 your familiar — 
yea and ours too — will be able to add others. He 
can also make out the arithmetical puzzles. 

" The major and minor distinctions of punctua- 
tion add greatly to the beauty of sentences j but 
the use of them has been almost lost by the rus- 
ticity of our scribes. Now that the beauty of all 
wisdom and the ornament of salutary learning is 
beginning to be renewed by the exertions of your 
nobility, so there is good hope that the use of punc- 
tuation is to be restored in the hands of scribes. 



1 Eginliart in his life of Karl (ch. 25) states that the king 
studied grammar under Peter of Pisa, an aged deacon. 

2 This was Angilbertus. 

3 That is, Eginhart, the man skilled in many arts, as was 
Bezaleel, the chief architect of the Tabernacle. 



284 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

"I for my part, though little proficient, fight 
daily against rusticity at Tours. Let your autho- 
rity teach the palace youths to produce in the 
most elegant manner whatsoever your most lucid 
eloquence shall have dictated, that documents which 
circulate in the name of the king may bear on 
their face the nobility of the royal wisdom." 

That appears to be the only case in which 
Eginhart is spoken of by Alcuin. Curiously 
enough, it appears that Alcuin is only once spoken 
of by Eginhart. We might have expected some 
mention of Alcuin in Eginhart' s statement of Karl's 
fondness for foreigners 1 . The remarkable passage in 
which Eginhart mentions Alcuin forms chapter 25 
of the Vita Caroli Magni^ coming in the course of 
this fine description of a man clearly worthy to be 
called Great : — 

u In eloquence he was copious and exuberant ; 
whatever he wished to express he could express 
in the clearest manner. Nor was he content to 
speak only in his native tongue ; he worked hard 
at learning foreign tongues. Latin he had learned 
so well that he was wont to pray in that tongue 
equally with his own. Greek he understood better 
than he spoke. He was so able in speech that he 
appeared as a teacher. He cultivated most stu- 
diously the liberal arts, and exceedingly respected 
and greatly honoured those who taught them. In 
learning grammar he heard the aged Peter of Pisa, 
a deacon. In other studies he had as his preceptor 
Albinus, whose cognomen was Alcuin, also a deacon, 
of the Saxon race, from Britain, a man most learned. 

1 See p. 33. 



ALCUIN AND MISSIONS. 285 



With him he spent much time and labour on 
rhetoric and dialectic, and especially on the study 
of astronomy. He learned the art of computation, 
and with much sagacity he scrutinized most closely 
the courses of the stars. He made efforts, too,. to 
become a scribe, for which purpose he used to have 
tablets and specimens carried about under the 
pillows of his bed, that he might practise his hand 
in writing when he had any spare time; but he 
did not make much way with a task begun so late 
in his life.^ 

It would have been strange if Alcuin had not 
taken special interest in the spread of Christianity 
among the pagan races on the eastern borders of 
the kingdom of Karl. Our West-Saxon Boniface 
had made such a mark, by himself and by his Mal- 
mesbury monks Lull and Burchardt and others, 
and his Wimborne nuns and magistrae, that Alcuin 
found familiar names in many parts of the eastern 
and north-eastern fringe, and made many inquiries 
about the progress of the work. In one of the 
earliest of his letters which have been preserved, 
he addresses an abbat who had gone to visit the 
Bishop of Bremen. " Salute a thousand times my e p . 13 
best loved bishop Uilhaed. It sorely grieves me a. b. 789. 
that I have parted from him. Would that I could 
see him/' This was our own Northumbrian Angle 
Willehad, born in 730, five years before Alcuin, 
and no doubt his school-fellow. He had narrowly 
escaped martyrdom, and had bent before the storm ; 
but he returned to the scene of his dangerous 
labours, and Karl caused him to be consecrated 
at Worms first bishop of Bremen on July 13, 787. 
He built his cathedral church at Bremen, and con- 



286 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



secrated it on November 1, 789 ; on November 8 
he died of fever at Blexen, close by. In this letter 
Alcuin charges the abbat — 

" Inform me by letter how far the Saxons fall 
in with your preaching, and if there is any hope of 
the conversion of the Danes, and if the Wilts and 
Vionuds \ whom the king has recently 2 acquired, 
accept the faith of Christ, and what is going on in 
those parts, and what the lord king intends to do 
about the Huns z ." 

In a letter to Colcu 4 , in the beginning of the 
next year, he says : — 
Ep. 14 " Let your dilection know that by the mercy of 

a. d. 790. q. oc [ the holy Church in the parts of Europe has 
peace, advances, grows. The Old Saxons and the 
Frisians have been converted to the faith of Christ 
at the instance of Karl, some by rewards, some by 
threats. Last year the said king with a great host 
attacked the Sclaves, whom we called Vionuds, and 
brought them into subjection. 

" Further, the dukes and tribunes of the same 
most Christian king have taken from the Sara- 
cens a large part of Spain, with a coast line three 
hundred miles in length. But — ah the grief ! — 
those same accursed Saracens are dominant over the 
whole of Africa and the greatest part of Asia/'' 



1 The Wends. 

2 Eginhard tells us under this year 789 that Karl crossed 
the Rhine at Cologne with a great army, pushed through 
Saxony as far as the Elbe, and brought the Wiltzi to terms. 
That, he says, is their name in the Frank tongue. In their 
own tongue they are Welatabi. 

3 The Huns, or Avars, had in the previous year invaded 
Italy and Bavaria. 

* See p. 151. 



ALCUIN AND TITHES. 287 

To Higbald of Lindisfarne, in the letter given 
at page 132, he writes : — 

" Almost the whole of Europe was destroyed by Ep. 24 
the fire and the sword of the Goths or the Huns. A - D - 793 - 
But now, by the mercy of God, as the sky shines 
bright with stars so Europe shines with the orna- 
ment of churches, and in them the offices of the 
Christian religion flourish and increase. " 

Writing to his most intimate friend Arno, Arch- Ep. 64 
bishop of Salzburg, who was about to accompany PJj®* Mai « 
an army against the Avars, Alcuin warns him 
against the premature imposition of tithes : — 

(< Be a preacher of piety, not an exactor of tithes ; 
for the freshly converted soul is to be fed with the 
milk of apostolical piety until it grows, strengthens, 
and becomes strong enough to receive solid food. 
Tithes, it is said, have subverted the faith of the 
Saxons. Why should we place on the neck of 
the ignorant a yoke which neither we nor our 
brethren have been able to bear?'''' 

Again, writing to Karl after the subjugation of Ep. 67 
the Huns, Alcuin says this : — P°st Aug. 

" Now let your most wise and God-pleasing piety 
provide for the new people pious preachers, of honest 
life, learned in sacred science, imbued with evan- 
gelical precepts, intent in their preaching on the 
examples of the holy Apostles, who were wont to 
minister milk — that is, gentle precepts — to their 
hearers who were beginners in the faith. 

"These things being thus considered, let your 
most holy piety take into wise consideration whether 
it is well to impose upon an ignorant race, at the 
beginning of the faith, the yoke of tithes, so that 



288 ALCUIN OP YORK. 

they shall be fully exacted from house to house. It 
is worth considering whether the Apostles, taught 
by the God Christ Himself, and sent to preach to 
the world, required the exaction of tithes or any- 
where demanded them. We know that the tithing 
of our substance is a very good thing; but it is 
better to sacrifice the tithe than to lose the faith. 
And indeed we, born and brought up and taught 
in the Catholic faith, scarce consent to tithe to the 
full our substance ; how much, does feeble faith not 
consent to the gift of tithe, and the infant will, 
and the covetous mind. But when faith has be- 
come strong, and the practice of Christianity is 
confirmed, then, as to perfect men, may stronger 
precepts be given, from which the mind, become 
solid in the Christian religion, may not recoil." 

He then proceeds to urge that the adults of the 
conquered Huns shall not be baptized until they 
have first been carefully taught, " lest the ablution 
of sacred baptism of the body profit nothing/'' On 
this subject of the baptism of the Huns a long 
report is found in a tenth-century collection of 
Alcuin's letters, written by Paulinus the Patriarch 
of Aquileia, describing a discussion which took 
place at a meeting of bishops, or in the College 
of Bishops, summoned by King Pippin in the 
summer of this year 796. 
Ep. 69, In the autumn of 796, Alcuin again writes on 

the subject of tithes, this time addressing his 
friend x Megenf rid, the treasurer of the palace, 
and dealing not with the Huns, but with the 
Saxons. Alcuin writes to him as to one of the 

1 u Amice carissime.'' 



Charlemagne's elephant. 289 

principal advisers of Karl, enters fully into the oft 
repeated argument about milk and strong meat, 
and arrives thus at his point. 

" If the yoke easy and the burden light of Christ 
had been preached to this most hard race, the 
Saxons, as carefully as the rendering of tithes 
was required, and the legal penalties for the very 
smallest faults, it may be that they would not have 
abhorred the sacraments of baptism. As to those 
who are sent to teach them, sint praedicatores non 
praedafores, let them preach, not prey." 

In another letter of that autumn, he sends full E P- 71 - 
advice to Arno, the bishop of Salzburg, as to the 
manner of teaching the faith to the Huns. In 
the course of this letter he reminds Arno that the 
wretched race of the Saxons has repeatedly lost the 
sacrament of baptism, because it never had in heart 
the foundation of the faith. 

In the year 801 the news reached Charlemagne 
that one Isaac the Jew, whom he had sent four 
years before to the King of Persia, was returning, 
bringing with him an elephant and many other 
presents. He had got as far as Fez. Special 
arrangements were made for bringing the elephant 
across the sea, and he arrived at Spezzia in 
October, wintering at Vercelli because the Alps 
were already covered with snow. Eginhart thought 
the arrival of the elephant at Aix-la-Chapelle to 
be of sufficient importance to have the precise day 
named, the only event thus honoured in a year 
rather full of events. It was the twentieth of 
July; and the elephant's name was Abulabaz. 
Under the year 810, another year full of impor- 
tant events, Eginhart records that Charlemagne 
u 



290 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



heard of a sudden and successful raid of Northmen 
upon the Frisians ; he set off in great haste, sum- 
moned all his forces from all parts, crossed the 
Rhine at Lippenheim, and waited there a few days 
for the troops to assemble. He had taken his 
favourite animal with him. While he was waiting*, 
the elephant died suddenly. See Appendix E. 

The strange form of an elephant made it a 
frequent subject for the ornamentation of silk and 
woollen robes. We hear of silk pallia thus adorned 
in Charlemagne's lifetime, and it is probable that 
in a stuff of this kind his body was clothed in the 
grave at Aachen. Alcuin's great predecessor in 
learning, Aldhelm, had a chasuble of scarlet silk, 
wrought with black scrolls containing the repre- 
sentations of peacocks, 1 and this chasuble was pre- 
served at Malmesbury in the time of William of 
Malmesbury, about 1140. The silk robes in which 
the body of St. Cuthbert was wrapped were orna- 
mented with large circular spaces containing men 
on horseback with hawk and hound, and an island 
with trees, fishes, and eider ducks. 

Plate VII shows one medallion of a piece of 
silk found on the body of Charlemagne when the 
grave was opened in the time of the present 
German Emperor. It is certainly not of Charle- 
magne's time. But it seems a fairly safe guess 
to suppose that his well-known regard for his 
favourite beast Abulabaz, who died only four years 
before him, caused his son to have the body 
wrapped in one of the robes decorated with 
elephants which we know that he possessed ; and 

1 See my Aldhelm, S.P.C.K., p. 129. 




Elephant from the tomb of Charlemagne. 



To face p. 290 



ELEPHANT-ROBES. 291 



that either in the year 1000, when Otho III 
opened the tomb, or in 1166, under Barbarossa, 
when Charlemagne was canonized, this piece of 
silk replaced the decayed robe originally buried 
there. We know of the two elephant-robes re- 
ferred to from Anastasius \ who gives an enormous 
list of the art works in gold and silver and silk 
and cloth of gold which were wrought for Leo III, 
Charlemagne's contemporary. One item is "two 
robes of Syrian purple, with borders of cloth of 
gold wrought with elephants ". These robes Leo 
gave to Charlemagne. 

We can all but give the exact date of this re- 
markable Byzantine beast. The inscription breaks 
off exactly where the date came. The Greek in- 
scription worked in the stuff (Plate VIII) sets forth 
that it was made "under Michael the great 
chamberlain and controller of the privy purse of 
the emperor, when Peter was the manager of 
Zeuxippos", i. e. the Byzantine court factory 
in Negropont. Then comes the tantalizing Indic- 
tionos (? B), and the date is lost. 

Dreger, in his Europaische Weberei unci Sticherei? 
gives some early examples of elephants in art. 
His Figure 37b shows an archaic silver relief of 
an elephant with a castle containing armed men. 
His Figure 37 a shows a silk stuff of the seventh 
or eighth century, of Asiatic manufacture, with 
circular medallions containing elephants, griffins 
and winged horses, hippogryffs ; and he remarks 
that iC the elephant is one of the most holy beasts 
of Buddhism". This silk stuff is shown in our 



Mansi, Concilia, xiii. 937. 2 Vienna, 1904. 

U2 



292 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Plate IX from a photograph of the original. A 
comparison of these elephants with the elephant 
shown in Plate VIII makes it fairly clear that the 
Charlemagne stuff is later than the other, while 
in all of the details of the beast itself, ears, three 
toes, eye, trunk, they are exactly the same. Each 
has a tree behind the elephant; but while the 
Charlemagne tree is a piece of stiff conventional 
work, the other is a natural tree with leaves and 
fruit, much resembling the vegetable ornamentation 
of some early Egyptian stuffs. Another feature 
pointing in the same direction is the thirty-two con- 
ventional patterns on the circular enclosing border. 
These in the earlier piece are twenty-eight plain 
disks. 

There is an example of sculptured elephants 
something like this one, but much more like the 
real beast, especially about the feet. The elephants 
are the legs of the ivory chair 1 of Urso, at 
Canossa; he was Bishop of Bari and Canossa 
1078-89. 

Something should be said about the language 
spoken by the people of France and Germany in 
the times with which we are dealing, the reference 
to a rustic tongue being not infrequent. 

In the Council convened by Charlemagne at Tours 
in the year 813, equally representing Eastern France 
and Western France, Austrasia and Neustria, Ger- 
many and the Galliae, the bishops in the Trans- 
alpine Empire were enjoined to be diligent in 
preaching, and to take care that their discourses 
should be rendered either into Komana Rustica or 

1 Cummings, History of Architecture in Italy, ii. 71, 



Plate IX 



?~m^m*m - 




*2a • 



Jili 



7 <* ^ ^V ^0| 










Silk stuff of the seventh or eighth century. 



To face p. 292 



EARLY FRENCH AND GERMAN. 293 

into Theotisc or Deutsch, that all might understand. 
It may be of interest to give the earliest specimens 
we have of these native languages. Philologically, 
these examples are of the very highest importance. 

In 841, after the dreadful battle of Fontenai near 
Vezelay in Burgundy, where Charles-le-Chauve and 
Louis-le-Germanique combined against their brother 
Lothar and their nephew Pepin and defeated them, 
they held a Congress at Strassburg to confirm their 
alliance. 

Louis and Charles each made announcement in 
Latin of the purpose of their agreement, and of 
their intention to take in public an oath each to 
other. That done, Louis, as the elder, first took 
the oath. Being the ruler of the German portion 
of the empire, he took the oath in the language of 
the Franks, the Eomance tongue, Kustica Romana, 
in order that the adherents of Charles might hear 
and understand his undertaking. These were the 
words of his oath, probably read by a chancellor, 
for the Latin account ! says haec se servaturum testatus 
est: — 

"Pro Deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostro 
commun salvament, dist di 2 in avant, in quant 
Deus savir et podir me dunat 3 , si salvarai eo cist 
meon fradre Karlo, et in aiudha et in cadhuna 4 
cosa, si cum om 5 per dreit 6 son fradra salvar dist, 
in o quid il mi altresi fazet 7 ; et ab Ludher nul 
plaid numquam prindrai, qui meon vol 8 cist meon 
fradre Karle in damno sit." 

Then Charles said the same in the language of 
the Germans, the Teudisc or Deutsch tongue. The 

1 Pertz, Monwmenta (Scriptores), ii. 665, 6. 

2 de ista die. 3 savoir et pouvoir me donne. 

4 chacune. 5 comme homme. 6 droit. 

7 faciet. 8 secundum meum velle. 



294 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

Latin account uses a different phrase here, liaec 
eadem verba testatus est. 

" In Godes minna ind in thes christianes folches 
ind unser bedhero gehaltnissi, fon thesemo dage 
frammordes, so frani so mir Got geuuizci indi mahd 
furgibit, so haldi thesan minan bruodher, soso man 
mit rehtu sinan bruodher seal, in thiu, thaz er mig 
so sama duo ; indi mit Ludheren in nohheiniu 
thing ne gegango, the minan uuillon imo ce scadhen 
uuerdhen." 

The peoples then swore an oath, each in their 
own, not the other's, tongue. The Frank people 
swore in the Komance language : — 

u Si Lodhuvigs sagrament, que son fradre Karlo 
iurat, conservat, et Karlus meos sendra de suo part 
non los tanit, si io returnar non Tint pois: ne io 
ne neuls, cui eo returnar int pois, in nulla aiudha 
contra Lodhuuuig nun li iv er." 

The others then swore in the Teudisc language : — 

" Oba Karl then eid, then er sinemo bruodher 
Ludhuuuige gesuor, geleistit, indi Ludhuuuige min 
herro then er imo gesuor forbrihehit, ob ih inan es 
iruuenden ne mag : noli ih no thero nohhein, then 
ih es iruuenden mag, uuidhar Karle imo ce 
follusti ne uuirdhit." 

An example of language nearly a hundred years 
earlier than this is found in the renunciation of the 
devil and the declaration of belief in God which 
our own Boniface required of his converts from 
paganism. The form is found attached to the 
decrees of a Council l held by Boniface, probably in 
the year 743. It exists in a Vatican manuscript 
(Vat. Palat. nro. 577, fol. 6, 7), which Pertz and 

1 Concilium Liptinense. 






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BONIFACE S ABRENUNTIATIO. 295 

other scholars believe to be of contemporary date. 
The form is of such extreme interest that I have 
had that part of it which is at the foot of folio 6 
photographed, by the kind help of a friend in the 
Vatican Library ; see figure 10, the four lowest 
lines. 

This is the form : — 

" Forsachistu diobolae ? Ec forsacho diabolae. 

End allum diobolgelde ? End ec forsacho allum 
diobolgeldae. 

End allum dioboles uuercum ? End ec forsacho 
allum dioboles uuercum and uuordum thunaer ende 
uuoden ende saxnote ende allum them unholdum 
the hira genotas sint. 

Gelobistu in Got alamehtigen fadaer ? Ec gelobo 
in Got alamechtigen fadaer. 

Gelobistu in Crist Godes suno ? Ec gelobo in Crist 
Gocles suno. 

Gelobistu in halogen Gast ? Ec gelobo in halogen 
Gast." 

An isolated piece of early " Saxon'''' is found 
in one of the letters contained in vol. iii of the 
Ejnstolae of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 
the volume containing Epistolae Merowingici et 
KaroBii Aevi (Berlin, 1892). The letter is No. 146 
of the " letters of Boniface and Lull''''. It is 
written by a poor and humble monk to a personage 
described as reverentissimus atque sanctissimtts, who 
would appear to have had the reputation of not 
carrying out his purposes. The proverb looks like 
the eighth century ; Brandl thinks that it is pre- 
Christian. The dialect is probably Northumbrian, 
varied by a West- Saxon or a German scribe. 

"I hear of thee that thou proposest to make 



296 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

a journey : I exhort thee not to fail. Do what 
thou hast begun. Remember the Saxon saying 
Oft daedlata dome foreldit 
Sigisitha gahuem suuyltit thi ana ". 
That is, Often the tardy man (deed-late) loses 
glory, some victory ; thus he dies solitary. 

The suggested date of the letter is a.d. 757-786. 

Mention was made on page 57 of the inscriptions 
which exist on the great shaft of a cross in the 
churchyard of Bewcastle in Cumberland. These 
inscriptions are the earliest extant pieces of Eng- 
lish prose. They give the names of the King of 
Mercia, Wulfhere, his queen and her sister, with 
the date "first year of Ecgfrith King of this 
realm", that is, a.d. 670. We have another in- 
scription dated in Ecgfrith's reign, that, namely, 
on the dedication stone of the basilica of St. Paul 
at Jarrow, " in the 15th year of King Ecgfrith 
and the fourth year of Abbat Ceolfrid", so that 
the manner of dating the Bewcastle cross was that 
usual at the time; the Jarrow inscription is in 
Latin 1 . Plate XI shows a facsimile of all except 
the two top lines (which were beyond my reach) 
of the main inscription on the Bewcastle cross, 
a copy of which is given in a note on page 57. 
The runes on Plate XI begin with the gar of 
Woilujar, the second of the three persons who " set 
up this slender token of victory in memory of 
Alchf rith once King and son of Oswy } \ the half- 
brother of King Ecgfrith ; mention has been made 
of him on page 9. 

The earliest pieces of English verse in existence 

1 A photograph of this inscription is reproduced at p. 209 
of my Conversion of the Heptarchy. 



Plate XI 




t&\ 







n 



^ 



[> 



^ 



i? 



fc 



m 



PH 



in) 



H 



if 



}F¥ 




to 



Runes incised on the Bewcastle Cross. 



To race jp. 296. 



Plate XII 



BlhTftW 



h 



w 
nt 



m 



ffl 



i 



to 

Ml 

Ml 

m 
m 

UN 



fid 



n 



Runes incised on the Ruthwell Cross. 



To face p. 297. 



EARLIEST PIECES OF ENGLISH. 297 

in their original form are found on the Cross at 
Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire, a monument of equal 
magnificence with the Bewcastle Cross, and prob- 
ably about fourteen years later. King 1 Ecgfrith 
was slain by the Picts in 685, and the Angles 
were never dominant in the south-west of Scotland 
after his death. Plate XII shows a portion of the 
many runes on this great monument, which is 
described at pages 235-254 of my little book on 
Theodore and Wilfrith. Reading across the top and 
down the right side the runes are as follows : — 

Krist was 071 rodi hwethra ther fusa fearran 
kwomu aththila til anum ic that al bih\eald\ 
Christ was on the cross, and there hastening from 
far came they to the noble prince. I that all 
beh[eld]. 

Beginning at the top again and reading down 
the left side, we have : — 

Mith strehim giwundad alegdun hia hina Urn- 
woerigna gisioddim him (at his licas heafdum). 
With missiles wounded, they laid Him down limb- 
weary, they stood at His body's head. 



800. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



Alcuin's latest clays. — His letters mention his ill health. 
— His appeals for the prayers of friends, and of strangers. — 
An affectionate letter to Charlemagne. — The death scene. 



Alcuin's health began to break in the later part 
of the year 800, or early in 801. In June, 800, he 
Ep. U7 wrote a letter to Arno of Salzburg which shows 

'qo/? 6 26 ' ^ na ^ ne nac ^ m ^ ne ms k days °f ^ ne month travelled 
with Karl from Tours to Aix by way of Orleans 
and Paris, and after a debate with Felix the 
Adoptionist had returned to Tours. We do not 
find in this long letter any mention of failing 
health. Indeed, he overflows with affectionateness, 
a feeling always displayed in his letters to Arno. 
" I am sending to your dearness three little gifts ; 
a tent to protect your venerated head from the 
rain 1 , a bed-cover to keep warm your sacred breast, 
and a glass in which your bread may be dipped at 
table, that whenever they are used they may bring 
to your sanctity a recollection of my name." 

In this letter he describes his debate with Felix. 

"I have had a great dispute with the heretic 
Felix in presence of the lord king and holy fathers. 
He was obdurate ; would recognize the authority of 
no one who took an opposite view ; held himself to 

1 This must have come very near to being an umbrella. 



ALCUINS LATEST DAYS. 299 

be wiser than all in this, that he was more foolish 
than all. But the divine clemency touched his 
heart ; he confessed that he had of late been carried 
away by a false opinion ; he professed that he held 
firmly the Catholic faith. We could not see into his 
mind, and we left the cause to the Judge of secret 
things. We handed him over to Laidrad [the 
Bishop of Lyon (798-814)] our dearest son, who is 
to keep him and see whether it is true that he 
believes, and whether he will write letters con- 
demning the heresy which he has preached. The 
king had intended to send him to Archbishop Biculf 
[of Maintz] to be kept and chastised ; and his pres- 
byter, who is worse than his master, was to be sent 
to you and your providence. But now that they 
say they are converted to the Catholic faith, they 
have been handed over to Laidrad, who is to test 
their sincerity/'' 

On May 24, 801, Alcuin received a letter from 
Arno, Archbishop of Salzburg, at nine o'clock in 
the morning-, and the messenger told him he must 
leave again at three in the afternoon. In the 
course of the six hours he dictated fourteen para- 
graphs in reply. One of these concerned his health. 
" My Candidus has been able to tell you all about Ep. 189 
my weakness. It is therefore superfluous to write Ma y> 802 - 
on the subject, except to say that all bodily fitness 
has left me, and pleasures of the world have fled 
far away." 

The interesting remark in this letter that the 
messenger from Salzburg to Tours, a distance of 
some six hundred miles, must go back in six hours 
is not the only interesting detail. We learn, also, 
that many letters were lost in the difficulties of the 



300 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



journey. The eyes of the Sassenach of to-day, who 
rides some forty miles in a Scottish mail-cart in 
Sutherland, and sees the letters shied out into kail- 
yards and steadings, are opened to the possibilities 
of loss in primitive methods of letter-carrying. The 
admirable arrangements of the early Roman empire, 
for conveyance of men and things, had been thrown 
into chaos long before Alcuin's time, and special 
messengers, or " runners ", were used by important 
people for the transmission of letters. 
Ep. 189 " To Arno. My devotedness is greatly grieved 

May, 802. by the unfaithfulness of those whom I have trusted 
with letters to you. Last year I sent to you on 
your return from Italy two letters, and I also sent 
to you other two to meet you on your arrival at 
the palace [Aachen]. I do not know that any of 
them reached your presence.' , 

Alcuin wrote to the Emperor Charles in 802, or 
possibly in 803, begging that he might be allowed 
Ep. 193. to stay quietly at St. Martin's, Tours. " I am so 
very weak in body that I am unequal to any more 
travelling or labour. To speak truth, all the fit- 
ness and strength of my body has left me ; it has 
gone, and day by day will be further away ; I fear 
it will never come back to me in this world." 
Ep. 194. Again, writing to Arno in 802 or 803, he tells 
him how he longs to see him at St. Martin's, " not 
for the sake of your black hair, but for your most 
sweet "eyes and lovable talk." Though bidden to 
the palace, where he would have met him, his poor 
little body was too weak for the journey : he could 
not go. 
Ep. 196 In another letter to Arno he writes : " I have 

a. d. 802-3. been summoned to my lord David [Charlemagne], 



ALCUIN's APPEALS FOR PRAYERS. 301 

but my bodily weakness prevented my going : the 
will of God detained me." We have his letter of 
excuse to the emperor. He begins with the Ep. 198 
simile of the aged soldier, unable not only to bear a. d. 802-3. 
the weight of armour, but even to support his own 
body. Then he proceeds: a To speak simply, let 
not the mind of my lord be inflamed against me 
for my delay; I am not strong enough to come. 
A more favourable opportunity may occur/'' 

He became more than ever pressing in his en- 
treaties that his friends would pray for him. In 
seeking for the prayers of others we find him 
turning to a part of England of which we do not 
appear to have any other mention in his letters, Ep. 230. 
namely, Norfolk and Suffolk, called then the 
dioceses of Elmham and Dunwich (see page 159). 
In like manner, and for a like purpose, he wrote to 
the brethren of Candida Casa, i. e. Whithorn in 
Galloway, the following letter : — 

" I pray the unanimity of your piety to have my Ep. 271 
name in memory. Deign to intercede for my A - D - 804 « 
littleness in the church of your most holy father 
Nynia the bishop. 

(C He shone bright with many virtues, as has 
recently been related to me by a skilful poem which 
our faithful disciples the scholars of the church of 
York have sent. In that poem I have discerned in 
that which I have read there both the skill of the 
writer and the holiness of him who wrought the 
miracles. Wherefore, I pray you, by your holy 
intercessions to commend me to his prayers, that 
by the most holy prayers of the same your father, 
and by the assiduous intercessions of your love, 
I may receive pardon for my sins, by the mercy of 



302 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



the God Christ, and may come to the communion 
of saints who have bravely conquered the labours 
of the world, and have received the crown of per- 
petual praise. 

I send to the body of our holy father Nyniga 
(sic) a robe of whole silk, that my name may be 
remembered, and that I may merit to have always 
the pious intercession both of him and of you. 

May Christ's right hand protect and rule you, 
brothers." 

Here is a very touching letter, which sets clearly 
before our eyes the dear affectionate old man — old 
as men then counted age — beaten at last by bodily 
weakness, while his heart was as loving as ever. 
It is addressed to " the most longed for lord David, 
most worthy of all honour." 
Ep. 170 "Day by day, with hungry intentness of heart, 

a.d. 801, my ears hanging on the words of messengers, I 
eai ' ly wondered anxiously what they could tell me of 

my most sweet lord David : when he would come 
home ; when he would return to his own land. At 
last, though late, the wished-for voice sounded in 
the ears of my desire : ' He will soon come. He has 
already crossed the Alps, he whose presence thou 
hast desired, O Albinus, with such fervour of 
mind/ And then I cried over and over again with 
tearful voice : ' O Lord Jesu, why dost thou not 
give me the wings of an eagle ? Why dost thou 
not grant me the translation of the prophet 
Abacuc ] for one day, or even one hour, that I 
might embrace and kiss the steps of him my 
dearest one, and — above all that can be loved in 

1 Dan. xiv. 35, Vulgate. 



ALCUIN S DEATH. 303 

this world — see the most clear eyes of my sweetest 
one, and hear his most joyous words. And why 
dost thou, mine enemy of fever, oppress me at this 
inopportune time, and not permit me to have my 
wonted alacrity of body, so that, though tardily, 
that might be accomplished which promptly it 
cannot do/ " 

The dates and the story of his final illness and 
his death are found, as we have seen (Ch. II), in 
the life written about twenty years later by a 
pupil of Alcum's favourite priest Sigulf, and more 
concisely in the Annals of Pettau, a monastery 
not far from Salzburg, and therefore likely to be 
well-informed. Some of the touching facts should 
be repeated here. 

Early in 804 he was evidently failing. He 
prayed earnestly that he might die on the day 
on which the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles 
in tongues of fire. All through Lent he was able 
to move about, night after night, to the several 
basilicas of saints which were included in the 
monastery of St. Martin, cleansing himself from 
his sins with much groaning. He kept the 
solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection ; but on the 
night of the Ascension he fell upon his couch, 
oppressed by languor even unto death, and unable 
to speak. The Annals of Pettau tell us that this 
was a paralytic stroke, and that it fell on Thursday, 
May 8, in the evening, after sunset. On the third 
day before his death he recovered the power of 
speech, and with a voice of exultation sang 
through his favourite antiphon, clavis David, 
based upon Isaiah xxii. 22 : " The key of the house 
of David I will lay upon his shoulder ; so he shall 



304 ALCUIN OF YORK. 



open and none shall shut, he shall shut and none 
shall open." Then he repeated a number of verses 
from several psalms : " Like as the hart desireth 
the waterbrooks." "O how amiable are Thy dwell- 
ings, Thou Lord of hosts ; blessed are they that 
dwell in Thy house." " Unto Thee do I lift up 
mine eyes." "One thing I have desired of the 
Lord." "Unto Thee, O Lord, will I lift up my 
soul." And others of like kind. On the day of 
Pentecost, matins having been said, at full dawn, 
just at the hour at which he was wont to enter 
the church for Mass, the holy soul of Alcuin was 
released from the flesh. He had prayed months 
before that he might die on Whit Sunday ; on 
Whit Sunday he died. 



APPENDIX A 

(Page 26) 

It would appear that when Aleuin was not 
allowed by Charlemagne to retire to Fulda, as he 
had wished to do, an impulse of affectionate re- 
sponsibility brought him to pour himself out in 
advice and help to those with whom he had hoped 
to spend his last days. This is his letter to the 
monks of Fulda. 

" To the most holy, and by us with all love to Ep. 186 
be cherished, the brethren of the holy Boniface 1 , a.d.801-2. 
our father and protector, the humble levite Alchuin 
wishes eternal beatitude in Christ. 

" I am mindful of your most sweet love, with 
which you most benignantly received me long 
ago with all joy. Greatly as I then was glad in 
your presence, so greatly is my mind now tortured 
in your absence, desiring to see you whom it 
loves, to have present you whom it esteems. 
Since this is denied to the eyes of the flesh, let 
love be made perpetual by spiritual presence ; love 
which can come to an end has never been true 
love. 

" Let us therefore aim at that which is never to 
have an end, where is blessed eternity and eternal 
blessedness. That ye may deserve to attain to 
this, let no labour affright you, no blandishments 

1 Bonefatii. This was, of course, the great English mis- 
sionary Archbishop of Maintz, martyred at Dorkum in 755. 
X 



306 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

of this life keep you back. Let there always burn 
in your hearts the love of Him that appeared as 
their companion on the way to the two apostles, 
who, when He was removed from their carnal 
eyes, said c Did not our hearts burn within us, 
while He talked with us by the way, and while 
He opened to us the Scriptures ? ' In the writings 
of the holy fathers let us seek Him whom they, 
not yet learned in the Scriptures, understood. 
Now all is open ; now He has opened the meaning 
of Whom it was said ' Then opened He their 
understanding, that they might understand the 
Scriptures/ Now the gospel truth shines forth 
in all the world ; now the enigmas of the prophets 
are clearer than the sun in the churches of Christ. 
This light of truth follow ye with your whole soul 
and understand Christ; in it love Christ, follow 
Christ ; that cleaving to His most sacred footsteps 
ye may merit to have in His most holy presence 
life eternal. 

" Be mindful of the apostolic mandate, 1 ' My 
brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable; always in 
the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that 
your labour is not in vain in the Lord/ Be 
stedfast in your own place and in the devotion of 
your purpose. Leave not your most holy father. 
Stand about his sepulchre, that he may offer your 
prayers to Almighty God. Desire not the vanities 
of the world, but love celestial blessings. c And/ 
as the teacher of the Gentiles says, 2 f be not con- 
formed to this world, but be ye transformed by 
the renewing of your mind/ It is a base thing 

1 1 Cor. xv. 58. 2 Rom. xii. 2. 



APPENDIX A. 307 



for a monk to lose the spiritual warfare and to 
immerse himself in the affairs of the world. 

"Let there be no murmurings among you, no 
hatreds, no envyings, no evil speakings. 1 Judge 
not one another. Let everything be done in 
humility and concord, in obedience to those set 
over you, not to the eye only but from the heart, 
as in the presence of God. Let your obedience, 
your love, your humility be known to all, that 
very many may be taught by your good examples 
and may advance in the salvation of their souls. 

" If the venerable father Bouulf, 2 my most loved 
friend, is unable by reason of his weakness to 
observe the full hardness of the life by rule, judge 
ye not him, but obey him from your heart and 
love him as a father, for he will have to give 
account of your souls. He labours for you in 
wanderings and journey ings, that you may live 
quiet and keep the life by rule and have what is 
necessary for your bodies. Do you act as very 
dear sons. Fear God, love God, and have care of 
your most holy father in your prayers, that he 
may live in long prosperity with you, and that 
he with you and you with him may merit to have 
everlasting life. 

" Warn, instruct, teach your young men in all 
holy discipline and Catholic doctrine; that they 
may be held worthy to stand in the place of you 
and to send up prayers for you wherever you may 
remain. Warn them about chastity of body, 
about confession of their sins, about study and 

Based on 1 Pet. ii. 1. 
2 He was Abbat of Fulda from 780 to 802, when he re- 
signed the office. 

x2 



308 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

manual labour without murmur, and about all 
things which seem necessary at their age. And 
let them become subject to their elders and masters 
in good humility, in most pious religion. And 
do you who are older afford to them good 
examples, so that they may learn not from your 
words only but by the religion of your life. Let 
them not be given to luxury, not slaves to drink, 
not despisers, not following empty games ; but let 
them learn to be good servants in the house of 
God, that by the intercession of holy Boniface 
their father they may deserve to receive from the 
God Christ blessing and favour. 

" And as to myself, I pray you have me in per- 
petual recollection with yourselves in your holy 
prayers. For the time is at hand which no man 
can escape. Let each one prepare himself, that 
he may appear in the presence of his God not 
naked but clothed with good practices. 

"1 have sent a pall for the body of the holy 
Boniface our father, on whose holy intercession for 
my sins I place great reliance ; that I, a sinner, 
may even merit pardon in that day, when your 
holiness shall receive the crown of eternal blessed- 
ness. 

" To. you, O most holy presbyters, I have sent 
a little collection of words for the Mass, for use on 
various days on which any one desires to offer 
prayers to God, whether in honour of the Holy 
Trinity 1 , or in love of wisdom, or in tears of peni- 
tence, or in perfect love, or asking for angelic 
support, or in address to any one of all the saints ; 

1 This, no doubt, is the origin of the tradition that Alcuin 
wrote the Office for Trinity Sunday. See pp. 20, 173. 



APPENDIX A. 309 



or if any one wish to offer prayers for his own sins, 
or for any living friend, or for many friends, or for 
brothers departing this life; or, especially, when 
one wishes to invoke the intercessions of blessed 
Mary, mother of God, ever virgin; or when any 
desires to chant and invoke by his prayers the most 
pious presence of the most holy Boniface your 
father. All these things we have been at the pains 
to send to you by the intuition of love, praying 
your humility to receive benignantly that which 
with the fullest love we send you. Let each make 
of it such use as each pleases; and blame me not 
in this office of love. Let each be fully persuaded 
in his own mind 1 and do always such things as 
are pleasing to God and all saints, that with them 
they may be found worthy to enjoy the perpetual 
vision of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

"May the Lord God hearken to your holy 
blessedness mindful of me in all holy supplication, 
and deign to grant unto you present felicity and 
future beatitude, my most loved brothers. 

" I beg that you make known to me by letter 
from your blessedness, if this letter reaches you, 
and what it pleases your prudence to do. What it 
is mine to do I have done, fulfilling the office of 
affection in the love and honour of our Lord Jesus 
Christ/' 

1 Kom. xiv. 5. 



APPENDIX B 

(Page 91) 

We have the report which the legates George 
and Theophylact sent to Pope Hadrian on their 
mission. No reference is made in it to the matter 
of the Archbishopric of Lichfield. Iaenbricht is 
still the sole sonthern archbishop, and Higbert of 
Lichfield is only bishop. 
Ep. 10 "Your holy prayers favouring us, we set sail 

a.d. 786. w it n joyous countenance obeying your commands. 
But the tempter hindered us with a contrary wind. 
He who stills the waves hearkened unto your de- 
precatory entreaty, calmed the blue strait, led us 
across to a safe haven, and brought us to the shore 
of the English unharmed, but afflicted with many 
dangers. 

"We were received first by Iaenberht, Arch- 
bishop of the holy church of Dorovernia, 1 whose 
other name is Cantia, where the holy Augustine 
rests in the body; dwelling there we gave him 
the necessary information. 

" Going on thence, we arrived at the dwelling 
of Off a, King of the Mercians. With great joy, 
for reverence of the blessed Peter and honour of 
your apostolate, he received both us and the 
messages sent from the highest see. Then Offa 
the King of the Mercians, and Cynewulf the King 

1 It will be observed that no mention is made of a kins: of 
Kent. See p. 91. 



APPENDIX B. 311 



of the West Saxons, came together in a council 
to which we delivered yonr holy writings; and 
they forthwith promised that they would correct 
the vices named. 1 Then, after counsel held with 
the said kings, pontiffs, and elders of the land, 
considering that that corner of the world stretches 
far and wide, we gave permission to Theophylact, 
the venerable bishop, to go to the King of the 
Mercians 2 and the parts of Britain. 

" I for my part, taking with me the companion 
whom your most excellent King Karl sent with 
us out of reverence to your apostolate, Wighod, 
abbat and presbyter, went on to the country of the 
Northanymbrians, to Aelfuald the King, and the 
Archbishop of the holy church of the city of York, 
Eanbald. The King was living far off in the 
north, and the said Archbishop sent his messengers 
to the King, who at once with all joy fixed a day 
for a council, 3 to which the chief men of the 
district came, ecclesiastical and secular. It was 
related in our hearing that other vices, 4 and by 
no means the least, needed correction. For, as 
you know, from the time of the holy pontiff 
Augustine no Roman priest 5 [or bishop] has been 
sent there except ourselves. We wrote a Capitular 
of the several matters, and brought them to their 
hearing, discussing each in order. They, with all 

1 See the list on the next pages. 

2 This would indicate that the aula at which they had 
met the king and held the council was one of Offa's outlying 
manors, and not his central royal residence. 

3 Supposed, on slight reasoning, to have been held at 
Corbridge, see p. 216. 

1 Besides those in the Pope's list. 

5 Sacerdos. It is uncertain to how late a date sacerclos is 
to be rendered bishop. 



312 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

humility of subjection and with clear will, honoured 
both your admonition and our insignificance, 
and pledged themselves to obey in all things. 
Then we handed to them your letters to be read, 
charging them to keep the sacred decrees in them- 
selves and in those dependent on them. 

" These are the chapters which we delivered to 
them to be kept. 1 

" 1. Of keeping the faith of the Nicene Council. 

" 2. Of Baptism, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer. 

" 3. Of two Councils to be held every year. 

" 4. Of the service and vesture of Canons and 
Monks. 

" 5. Of the elections of Abbats and Abbesses. 

" 6. Of ordaining Priests and Deacons. 

" 7. Of the Canonical Hours. 

"8. Of the rights of churches granted by the 
See of Rome. 

" 9. That ecclesiastics do not take food secretly. 

" 10. That priests do not perform sacred rites 
with bare legs 2 ; of the offerings of the faithful ; 
that chalice and paten for sacrificing to God be 
not made from ox-horn, because they are bloody ; 
that bishops in their councils judge not secular 
matters. 

"11. Let kings and princes study justice, obey 

1 Wattenbach and Dummler give only the headings of 
the chapters, as here. The chapters themselves will be found 
in Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 448-58. 

2 There are many injunctions that priests and others 
serving at the altar must wear drawers. There is quite 
a largo literature on the subject of these garments (femoralia), 
in which such of the early fathers as are given to symbolism 
find symbolic meanings. They were an essential part of the 
dress of the Levitical priesthood (Exod. xxviii. 42, 43). 



APPENDIX B. 313 



bishops, venerate the church, employ prudent 
counsellors. 

" 12. That in the ordination of kings no one 
permit the assent of evil men to prevail; kings 
must be lawfully elected by the priesthood and 
the elders of the people, and be not born of 
adultery or incest; let honour be paid by all to 
kings ; let no one be a detractor of a king ; let no 
one dare to conspire for the death of a king, 
because he is the anointed of the Lord ; if any one 
have part in such wickedness, if he be a bishop 
or of priestly order let him be thrust out from it, 
and every one who has assented to such sacrilege 
shall perish in the eternal fetters of anathema. 
For by examples among yourselves it has fre- 
quently been proved that those who have been 
the cause of the death of sovereigns have soon 
lost their life, being outside the protection of 
divine and human law. 

" 13. That powerful and rich men decree just 
judgements. 

" 14. Of the forbidding of fraud, violence, 
rapine ; that unjust tribute be not imposed on 
churches ; of keeping peace. 

" 15. Unlawful and incestuous unions are for- 
bidden to all, alike with the handmaids of God 
and other illicit persons and with those in affinity 
and kindred and with other men's wives. 

"16. Lawful heirship is by decree refused to 
the children of harlots. 

" 17. Of tithes to be given ; of usury to be for- 
bidden ; of just measures and equal weights to be 
established. 

" 18. Of vows to be fulfilled. 



314 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

" 19. We have added that each faithful 
Christian must take example from Catholic men ; 
and if anything has remained of the rites of pagans 
it must be plucked out, contemned, cast away. 

" For God made man fair in form and appear- 
ance ; but the pagans with diabolical instinct have 
inflicted most horrible scars, 1 as Prudentius says : 

He tainted the innocent ground 2 with sordid spots. 

for he evidently does injury to God, who fouls and 
defiles His creature. Without doubt a man would 
receive a rich reward who underwent for God this 
injury of staining. But to one who does it from 
gentile superstition it profiteth nothing, as circum- 
cision to the Jews without belief of heart. 

" Further, you wear your clothes after the man- 
ner of the gentiles whom by God's help your fathers 
drove out of the land by arms. It is a wonderful 
and astonishing thing that you imitate the fashion 
of those whose life you always hate. 

" You have the evil habit of maiming your horses : 
you slit their nostrils, you fasten their ears together 
and make them deaf, you cut off their tails ; and 
though you could have them entirely unblemished, 
you will not have that, but make them odious to 
every one. 

" We have heard also that when you go to law 
with one another you cast lots after the fashion of 
the gentiles. This is counted as completely sacri- 
legious in these days. 

" Further, many of you eat horses, which no 
Christian in eastern lands does. This you must 

1 Probably referring to the practice of tattooing. 

2 Prudentius {Dipt. i. 3) has "Adam" not "humum". 



APPENDIX B. 315 



give up. Strive earnestly that all your things be 
done decently and in order. 

" 20. Of sins to be confessed and penance to be 
done. 

" These decrees, most blessed Pope Hadrian, we 
propounded in a public council in presence of King 
Aelfuuald, Archbishop Eanbald, and all the bishops 
and abbats of that region, also of the ealdormen, 
dukes, and people of the land. And they, as we 
said above, with all devotion of mind vowed that 
they would in all things keep them according to 
the utmost of their power, the divine clemency 
aiding them. And they confirmed them in our 
hand (in your stead) with the sign of the holy cross. 
And afterwards they wrote on the paper of this page 
with careful pen, affixing the mark of the holy cross. 

"I Aelfuualdus king of the Transhumbrane 
race, consenting, have subscribed with the sign "of 
the holy cross. 

." I Dilberch 1 prelate 2 of the church of Hexham 
joyfully have subscribed with the sign of the holy 
cross. 

" I Eanbald by the grace of God archbishop of 
the holy church of York have subscribed to the 
pious and catholic force of this document with 
the sign of the holy cross. 

" I Hyguuald bishop of the church of Lindis- 
farne obediently have subscribed with the sign of 
the holy cross. 

1 This was Tilbert, Bishop of Hexham (Augustald) 781-789. 
There is no reason of seniority or priority that should make 
him sign above the Archbishop. If, as is probable, the 
Council was held at Corbridge, in his diocese, he might sign 
first as bishop of the place. 

2 Praesul. . In the other signatures episcopus is used. 



316 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

"I Aedilberch bishop of Whithern 1 suppliant 
have subscribed with the sign of the holy cross. 

<( I Aldulf bishop of the church of Mayo 2 have 
subscribed with devoted will. 

" I Aetheluuin 3 bishop have subscribed by dele- 
gates. 

" I Sigha the patrician with placid mind have 
subscribed with the sign of the holy cross. 4 

"To these most salutary admonitions we too, 
presbyters and deacons of churches and abbats of 
monasteries, judges, chief men, and nobles, unanim- 
ously consent and have subscribed. 

" I duke Alrich have subscribed with the sign of 
the holy cross. 

"I duke Siguulf have subscribed with the sign 
of the holy cross. 

" I abbat Aldberich 5 have subscribed with the 
sign of the holy cross. 

" I abbat Erhart have subscribed with the sign 
of the holy cross. 

"All this having been accomplished, and the 
benediction pronounced, we set out again, taking 
with us illustrious representatives of the king and 

1 Canclens-casa, usually Oandida-casa, so named from its 
being the first church built of white stone in that region. 

2 Myensis. See p. 156. Aldulf was consecrated in 786, the 
year of this Council, by Eanbald, Tilberht, and Hygbald, at 
Corbridge. It is on this account that the Germans think 
the Council was held at Corbridge. Hexham would equally 
meet the case, and better meets the suggestion of a previous 
note. 

8 Not as yet identified. 

4 It is rather quaint that Sigha should have chosen placido 
mente as the phrase to describe his manner of assent to No. 12 
above, for two years later he killed King Aelfwald, and he 
eventually died by his own hand. 

8 Of Ripon, 786-787. 



APPENDIX B. 317 



the archbishop, the readers JVtaluin 1 to wit and 
Pyttel. We travelled together, and they brought 
the above decrees to a council of the Mercians, at 
which the glorious King Offa was present, with the 
senators of the kingdom, the Archbishop Iaenbercht 2 
of the holy Dorovernian Church, and the other 
bishops of those parts. In presence of the council 
the several chapters were read out in a clear voice, 
and lucidly expounded both in Latin and in Teuton 
so that all could understand. Then all with one 
voice and with eager mind, grateful for the ad- 
monitions of your apostolate, promised, that they 
would according to their ability with most ready 
will keep in all respects these statutes, the divine 
favour supporting them. Moreover, as at the 
northern council, the king and his chief men, the 
archbishop and his colleagues, confirmed them in 
our hand (in the stead of your lordship) with 
the sign of the holy cross, and again ratified this 
present document with the sacred sign. 

" I Ieanbrecht 2 , archbishop of the holy church of 
Dorovernum, suppliant have subscribed with the 
sign of the holy cross. 

"I Offa king of the Mercians, consenting to 
these statutes, with ready will have subscribed 
with the sign of the holy cross. 

" I Hugibrecht 3 bishop of the church of Lichten- 
f else have subscribed with the sign of the holy cross. 

" I Ceoluulf bishop of the Lindisf aras 4 have sub- 
scribed. 

1 Some read Alquinum here, and make Alcuin one of the 
two lectores. 

2 The text has two forms of this variously spelled name. 

3 Higbert of Lichfield 779-802. 

4 Lindsey 767-796. The Lindisfaras had nothing to do 
with Lindisfarne. 



318 ALCUIN OF YORK. 

" I Unuuona bishop of the Legorenses l have 
subscribed. 

te I Alchard 2 bishop have subscribed. 

" I Eadberht 3 bishop have subscribed. 

" I Chumbrech 4 bishop have subscribed. 

" I Harchel 5 bishop have subscribed. 

" I Acine 6 bishop have subscribed. 

"I Tora" bishop have subscribed. 

" I Uuaremund 8 bishop have subscribed. 

" I Adalmund 9 bishop have subscribed. 

" I Adored 10 bishop have subscribed. 

"Edrabord abbat. Alemund abbat. Boduuin 
abbat. Uttel abbat. 

" I duke Brorda have subscribed with the sign of 
the holy cross. 

" I duke Eadbald have subscribed. 

." I duke Bercoald have subscribed. 

" I count Othbald have subscribed." 

1 Leicester 781-802. 2 Elmham 786-811, see p. 159. 

3 London 794-801. 

4 Kinbert of Winchester 785-801. 

5 Hendred of Dunwich, 781-789. 

6 Esne of Hereford 781-789. 7 Tolta of Selsey 781-789. 
8 Rochester 785-803. 9 Sherborn 766-793. 

10 Worcester 781-798. 



APPENDIX C 

(Page 177) 

Sed obsecro si vestrae placeat pietati ut exem- 
plarium illius libelli domno dirigatur apostolico 
aliud quoque Paulino patriarehae similiter Richo- 
bono et Teudolfo episcopis doctoribus et magistris 
ut singuli pro se respondeant Flaccus vero tuus 
tecum laborat in reddenda ratione eatbolicae fidei 
tantum detur ei spatium ut quiete et diligenter 
liceat illi cum pueris suis considerare sensus quid 
unusquisque diceret de sententiis quas posuit 
prefatus subversor in suo libello et tempore 
praefinito a vobis ferantur vestrae auctoritati 
singulorum responsa et quidquid in isto libello vel 
sententiarum vel sensuum contra catbolicam fidem 
inveniatur omnia catholicis exemplis destruantur 
et si aequaliter et concorditer cunctorum in pro- 
fessione vel defensione catholicae fidei resonant 
scripta intelligi potest quod per omnium ora et 
corda unus loquitur spiritus sin autem diversum 
aliquid inveniatur in dictis vel scriptis cuiuslibet 
videatur quis maiore auctoritate sanctarum scrip - 
turarum vel catholicorum patrum innitatur et huic 
laudis palma tribuatur qui divinis magis inhaereat 
testimoniis. 



APPENDIX D 

(Page 197) 

The following are the passages of the Donation 
which touch the question of the joint patronage of 
St. Peter and St. Paul in the Church of Rome. 
The edition from which they are taken is thus 
described on the title-page : — 

Constantini M. Imp. Donatio Sylvestro Papae 
Rom. inscripta : non ut a Gratiano truncating sed 
integre edita : cum versione Graeca duplici, Theo- 
dori Balsamonis, Patriarchae Antiocheni. et Mat- 
thaei Blastaris, I(uris) C(anonici) Graeci. 
Typis Gotthardi Voegelini 
(1610). 

The first page of the Latin Edict is not repre- 
sented in the Greek Thespisma. It ends with the 
words : " Postquam docente beato Silvestro trina 
me mersione verbi salutis purificatum et ab omni 
leprae squalore mundatum beneficiis beati Petri et 
Pauli Apostolorum cognovit 



Iustum quippe est, ut ibi lex sancta caput 
teneat principatus, ubi sanctarum legum institutor 
salvator noster beatum Petrum Apostolatus ob- 
tinere praecepit cathedram, ubi et crucis patibulum 
sustinens beatae mortis poculum sumpsit suique 
magistri et domini imitator apparuit : et ibi gentes 
pro Christi nominis confessione colla flectant, ubi 



APPENDIX D. 321 



eorum doctor beatus Paulus Apostolus pro Christo 
extenso collo martyris coronatus est : illic usque 
in finem quaerant doctorem, ubi sancti doctoris 
corpus quiescit; the Greek has rbv SiSdcrKaXov 
ottov to, T(ov ayttov Xetyfrava avairavovrai. 



Construximus itaque ecclesias beatorum Petri 
et Pauli Apostolorum, quas argento et auro locu- 
pletavimus: ubi sacratissima eorum corpora cum 
magno honore reeondentes, et thecas ipsorum ex 
electro (cui nulla fortitudo praevalet elementorum) 
construximus, et crucem ex auro purissimo et 
gemmis pretiosis per singulas eorum thecas posui- 
mus et clavis aureis confiximus. 



Pro quo concedimus ipsis Sanctis Apostolis do- 
minis meis, beatissimo Petro et Paulo, et per eos 
etiam beato Silvestro patri nostro summo Pontifici 
et universali urbis Romae Papae et omnibus eius 
successoribus Pontificibus, qui usque in finem 
mundi in sede beati Petri erunt sessuri, atque 
de praesenti concedimus palatium imperii nostri 
Lateranense, quod omnibus praefertur atque prae- 
cellit palatiis. 



Si quis autem (quod non credimus) temerator 
aut contemptor extiterit, aeternis condemnationibus 
subiaceat innodatus, et sanctos Dei principes Apo- 
stolorum Petrum et Paulum, sibi in praesenti et 
in futura vita sentiat contrarios, atque in inferno 

Y 



322 ALOUIN OF YORK. 

inferiori concrematus cum diabolo et omnibus de- 
ficiat impiis. 



The learned editor makes an interesting com- 
ment on the recognition by Constantine of the 
par ntriusque meritum, the equal merit of the two 
apostles Peter and Paul. The fate of Paul, he 
says, resembles that of Pollux. The two brothers, 
Castor and Pollux, had a Temple in common in 
the Forum, but it came to be called the Temple of 
Castor alone. 

In using such a document as this, the tempta- 
tion to alter words must have been very great. 
As an example of such change, the words which 
follow on our first quotation may be cited — 
" utile iudicavimus una cum omnibus satrapis et 
universo senatu, optimatibus etiam et cuncto 
populo Romani gloriae imperii subiacente. - " For 
gloriae Gratian reads ecclesiae. The Greek version 
has rrjs pcofLaiKrJ9 86£r]$. 

On a phrase of the Donation — u eligentes nobis 
ipsum principem Apostolorum vel eius vicarios 
firmos apud Deum esse patronos - " — the. editor 
quotes a remarkable passage from Aimoin * v. 2, 
which it is specially fitting to reproduce here, 
since it relates to Charlemagne and his sons : 
" Post non multum tempus incidit ei desiderium 
dominam quondam orbis videre Romani, principis 
Apostolorum atque doctoris gentium adire limina, 
seque suamque prolem eis commendare ; ut talibus 
nitens suffragatoribus, quibus coeli terraeque po- 

1 "Aimoini monachi, qui antea Annonii nomine editus 
est, Historiae Francorum " Lib. V. Parisris, 1567. 



APPENDIX D. 323 



test as attributa est, ipse quoque subiectis consulere, 
perduellionumque [si emersissent x ] proterviam 
proterere posset. Katus etiam non mediocre sibi 
subsidium eonferri, si a Vicario eorum cum bene- 
dictione sacerdotali tarn ipse quam et filii eius 
regalia sumerent insignia/'' 

In a letter to Karl of the highest importance, 
Hadrian I uses a remarkable phrase in describing 
Karl's regard for the Church of Home. He speaks 
of his faith and love towards the church of the 
blessed chiefs of the apostles Peter and Paul, — 
quantum erga beatorum prhwipum apostolorum Petri Ep. 33. 
et Pauli ecclesiam fidem geritis et amor em. In the A,I) - 794 - 
same letter he employs an argument which — while 
it would naturally have force with Karl — appears to 
assign to national churches other than that of Rome 
a remarkable position of independence. " If/' he 
says, cc everywhere canonical churches possess their 
dioceses intact, how much more should the holy 
catholic and apostolic Roman church, which is the 
head of all the churches of God, — Si enim ubique 
Christianorum ecclesiae canon icae intactas suas 
possident dioeceses, quanto amplius sancta catholica 
et apostolica Romana ecclesia, quae est caput 
omnium Dei ecclesiarum . . ." 



1 Omitted in the quotation. 



APPENDIX E 

(Page 290) 

Eginhart gives the name of Charlemagne's 
elephant as Abulabaz. This probably represents 
Abu 3 1 'Abhds, the elephant being in that case named 
after his royal donor, the first Abbasid Caliph, 
who was none other than our old friend of many 
tales of adventure, Harun al Raschid. His cali- 
phate lasted from 786 to 809, and thus coincided 
with the most brilliant period of Charlemagne's 
reign as king and emperor. His policy was to 
remain on most friendly terms with Charlemagne, 
while sending to Irene's supplanter at Constan- 
tinople, Nicephorus, communications of the follow- 
ing character : — 

" Harun al Raschid, Commander of the Faithful, 
to Nicephorus, the Roman dog. 

" I have read thy letter, O thou son of an un- 
believing mother. Thou shalt not hear, but behold 
my reply ! " 

Eginhart tells us under the year 807 of noble 
presents sent by the Saracen king of the Persians 
to Charlemagne. They included a pavilion and 
court tents, all, including the ropes, of linen of 
divers colours; palls of silk many and precious; 
scents, unguents, and balsam ; two great candelabra 
of brass (orichalc) of marvellous size and height; 
and above all a wonderful clock made of brass 
(orichalc). The principle of this remarkable machine 
was that of the water clock. At each complete 
hour little balls of brass were set free, which fell 
on to a cymbal below with a tinkling sound, while 
at the same time twelve knights on horseback 
opened windows and pushed out, closing windows 
which had been open. 



INDEX 



Abrenuntiatio diaboli, 295. 

Abulabaz, 289, 324, 

Acca, 137. 

Adalbert, 2, 27. 

Adoptionism, 24, 174. 

Adoration of Charlemagne, 
190, 191. 

Aigulf, 32. 

Aimoin, 322. 

Albert (York% 16, 53, 80. 

Albinus (Alcuin), 15. 

Alchfrith, 8. 

Alchred, 122. 

Alcuin, called Flaccus, 1 
Albinus, 15 ; studies Vir 
gil, 2, 11 ; conversion, 11 : 
trained by Ecgbert, 12 
by Albert, 16 ; a vision 
18 ; ordained deacon, 19 
master of the School of 
York, 20 ; joins Karl, 22 
revisits England, 24 ; re- 
turns to France, 24 ; re- 
futes Felix, 25, 176, 299 ; 
wishes to retire to Fulda, 
26 ; manner of life, 26 ; 
knowledge of secrets, 2, 
29, 30, 33, 34, 223 ; extin- 
guishes fire, 37; writings, 
42, 51-3, poem on York, 
ch. iv, lesser poems, 268, 
277, 298, a riddle, 268; 
drinks wine, 45, beer (not 
English, 267), 45 n, ; inter- 



death, 46, 303 ; miracles, 
49 ; alms for his soul, 224 ; 
his chief dates, 52, 85, 172- 
the pallium, 77; inherits 
the library of York, 84 ; 
a fisherman, 268 p litur- 
gical work, 260, 308 ; sing- 
ing, 260 ; interest in mis- 
sions, 285-9 ; Bibles, 
257 ; advises reference to 
Hadrian, 177-9 ; settles 
at Tours, 202 ; his styles, 
264-9 ; mentions Egin- 
hart, 283 ; is mentioned 
by Eginhart, 284 ; praised 
by William of Malmesbury, 
52 ; described by Theodulf, 
45 n., 245. 
Alcuin's letters to : — 
Abbat, an, 285. 
Adalhard, 264. 
Arno, 170, 235, 268, 270, 

271, 273-6, 287, 289, 298. 

299,300. 
Athilhard, 94, 115, 116, 

117. 
Beornwin, 98. 
Bishop, a, (sanctuary), 234. 
Britain, the pontiffs of, 

157. 
Candida Casa, 301. 
Candidus and Nathanael, 

231. 
Charles (Karl's son), 248, 

250. 
Colcu, 150, 286. 
Cuckoo, the, 168, 169. 



Y 3 



326 



INDEX 



Dunwieh and Elmham, 
159, 301. 

Eanbald I, 161. 

Eanbald II, 164, 166, 167. 

Eardulf, 141. 

Elmham and Dunwieh, 
159, 301. 

Etheldryth, 146, 148. 

Fulda, 305. 

Gisla and Rotruda, 253. 

Hexham, 137. 

Hibernia, 153. 

Higbald, 132, 170, 287. 

Jarrow, 135. 

Joseph, 267. 

Karl, 117, 191, 202, 208, 
238, 247 (?), 254. 287, 
300, 301, 302. 

Kenulf, 109. 

Leo III, 77. 

Lindisfarne, 132, 135. 

Mayo, 154. 

Megenfrid, 288. 

Mercian, a, 107. 

Offa, 93, 103. 

Osbald, 143. 

Paulinus, 270. 

Pepin, 252. 

Peter of Milan, 270. 

Pontiffs of Britain, 157. 

Remedius, 270. 

Rotruda, 253. 

Theodulf, 206. 

Uulfhard, 205. 

Wearmouth, 135. 

York, 162. 
Aldhelm,52, 107. 
Aldric, 2. 
Alfwold, 123. 
Alps, 269-72. 
Amalgerius, 242. 
Anglo-Saxon, Coronation 

Forms, 261-3. 
Anglo-Saxon, Earliest Ex- 
amples of, 296, 297. 



Archpresbyters, 230. 
Areida, 151. 
Arno, 47, 276. 
Aust, 114. 

B 

Baldhuninga, 151. 

Balther, 79. 

Bede, letter to Ecgbert, ch. 

iii. 
Bede, Story of, 70. 
Beer, 45 n. 
Beer, acid in Northumbria, 

267. 
Benedict of Aniane, 30. 
Beorurad, 7. 

Bewcastle Cross, 9, 57, 296. 
Bibles, Alcuin's, 257. 
Bilfrith, 125. 
Biscop, 127. 

Bishops, their conduct, 55. 
Bishops, dioceses too large, 

57. 
Bishops, election of, 163. 
Boniface, 26, 285, 305. 
Boniface, his abrenuntiatio 

diaboli, 295. 
Bouulf, 307. 
Bremen, 285. 
British Museum, Alcuin's 

Bible, 257. 

C 

Ceolfrith, 78. 

Charlemagne, see Karl. 

Chur, 269. 

Coire, 269. 

Colcu, 150-3. 

Cold in the Alps, 271-3. 

Columba, see Rotruda. 

Comb, riddle of, 269. 

Constantine Copronymus, 
201. 

Constantine the Great, Dona- 
tion by, 195, 320. 



INDEX 



327 



Constantino VI, 193. 

Cormery, 31, 223-8. 

Coronation Forms, Anglo- 
Saxon, 261-3. 

Cuckoo, the (Cuculus),Arno's 
letter to, 276. 

Cuckoo, Alcuin's lament on, 
277. 

D 

Danes, 126. 

Devil, interview of Alcuin 
with, 43 ; of St. Martin, 44. 

Dictated letters, &c, 7. 

Donation of Constantine,195, 
320, 321. 

Drithelme, vision of, 273. 

Dunwich, 159, 301. 



Eadbert, 76, 122. 

Eadfrith, 125. 

Eanbald I (York), 21, 161. 

Eanbald II, 163-9. 

Eanred, 124. 

Eardulf, 123. 

Eata, 79. 

Ecgbert (Ireland), 8. 

Ecgbert (York), 12, 13, 53, 54, 

76. 
Ecgfrith, 106. 
Eginhard (Bezaleel), 33, 283, 

284. 
Elephants, 289-92. 
Elfwald, 124. 
Elmham, 159, 301. 
Epternach, 6. 
Ethelred I, 123. 
Ethelred II, 124. 
Ethelwald, 122, 125. 

F 

Felix, 174-9, 298. 
Ferrieres, 1, 28. 
Frankfort, Council of, 183. 



Fredigisus (Fridugisus), 27, 

226, 227, 256. 
Fulda, 26, Appendix A, 

G 

George, legate, 310. 

Gisla (Lucia) , 253 ; letter to 

Alcuin, 254, 256. 
Graduate, 260. 
Gregory, Pope, the Pastoral 

Care, 169-71. 

H 

Hadrian I, 21 ; raises Lich- 
field to an Archbishopric, 
ch. v ; fears Offa, 92 ; to 
be consulted on a treatise 
of Felix, 177 ; letter to 
Karl, 323. 

Harun al Raschid, 324. 

Hereditary descent, 5-7. 

Hexham, 137. 

Higbald, 132. 

Huguenots, 210. 



Image -worship, 181-3. 
Irene, 193. 
Itherius, 217, 224-6. 



Jaenbert of Canterbury, 

despoiled ch. v. 
Jarrow, 127, 135. 
Joseph, Archbishop of Tours, 

ch. xiv. 

K 

Karl, 21, 22; visits Alcuin 
at Tours, 31 ; loved for- 
eigners, 33; invites Alcuin, 
54 ; quarrels with Offa, 98 ; 
tetters to Offa, 99, 119; 



328 



INDEX 



letter to Athelhard, 120 ; 
his visits to Rome, 186-91 ; 
grants to Cormery, 225 ; 
blames the brethren of St. 
Martin's, ch. xiv ; letter to 
Alcuin (sanctuary), 235 ; 
described byTheodulf, 245; 
questions to Alcuin, 280-4; 
described by Eginhart, 
284. 
Kenulf, 93, 111. 



Languages of Carolingian 
times, 292-6. 

Lectores, 317. 

Legates, papal, 91, 310. 

Leo III deprives Lichfield, 
ch. vi ; charges against. 
188-90; crowns Charle'- 
magne as Emperor, 190. 

Libraries, at the Cathedral 
Church of Tours, 220; 
Marmoutier, 221 ; St. 
Martin's, 222 ; Tours and 
the neighbourhood, 219, 
222 ; York, 84, 85. 

Libri Carolini, 183. 

Lichfield, made an Arch- 
bishopric, ch. v. 

Lindisfarne, 125-7, 132. 

Liturgies, 260. 

Louis, son of Karl, 31. 

Lucia, see Gisla. 

Luitgard, 245. 

M 

Malmesbury, William of, 51, 
92,113, 224,272; property 
restored, 106. 

Maluin, 317. 

Manuscripts, Alcuin sends 
to York for, 203 ; of Coron- 
ation Forms, 261-3. 

Marmoutier, 212. 



Martin, see St. 
Martinensian Bishops, 217, 

228. 
Mayo of the Saxons, 153-6. 
Mercia, Archbishopric of, 

ch. v. 
Missions, 285. 
Monasteries, suppression of, 

59-61 ; hereditary descent, 

62 ; bad state of, 65. 

N 
Nathanael, see Fredegisus. 
Nicephorus, 323. 
Ninian, 301. 

Northumbria, list of kings, 
122-4. 

O 

Oeren, 6. 

Offa, ch. v ; Appendix B. 

Orleans, 206, 232. 

Osbald, 141. 

Osred, 123. 

Osulf, 23, 25. 

Oswulf, 122. 

P 

Pallium, for York, 76, 77; 

for Lichfield, ch. v. 
Pandict, 258. 

Pastoral Care, the. 169-71. 
Paul, see Peter and. 
Pepin, son of Karl, 31, 252. 
Peter and Paul, Saints, 187, 

197, 320-3. 
Peter, St., his long letter to 

the Franks, 199. 
Pettau, 303. 

Pilgrimages, evils of, 65. 
Popes, gifts to, 92, 111 ; 

charges against, 188-190 ; 

adoration by, 191. 
Purton, 106. 
Pyttel, 317. 



INDEX 



329 



B 
Raganard, 27-9. 
Remedius (Remigius), 269. 
Ripon, 8. 
Rotruda (Columba), 193, 

253, 256 ; letter to Alcuin, 

254. 
Runes, 9, 296, 297. 
Rustica, Romana, 293. 

S 

Sanctuary, right of, ch. xiv. 

Saxon, early, 295. 

Scriptures, revision of, 253-9. 

Sigha, 16. 

Sigulf, 1, 20, 27, 49. 

Silk robes, 290, 302. 

Singing, 260. 

Spurn Point, 4. 

St. Martin, scenes in his life, 

38-41, 44; at Tours, 212, 

214, 221. 
St. Martin's, Tours, fire at, 

36 ; status of, 216; bishops 

of, 217, 228. 
Sulpicius Severus, 38, 44, 

221. 
Synod, Mercian, 92, 317 ; 

Northumbrian, 311. 



Tetbury, 106. 

Theodulf of Orleans, 206, ch. 

xiv, 245 ; describes Karl, 

245; describes Alcuin, 45 n., 

235. 
Theophylact, legate, 310. 
Theotisc (Deutsch), 294. 
Tithes, 287. 
Tours, Alcuin settles at, 202 ; 

character of the brethren, 



204, ch. xiv ; its amenity 
defended by Alcuin, 209 ; 
fees at the School, 209 ; 
the Church of St. Martin, 
210-13 ; the Cathedral 
Church, 213, 214 ; Public 
Library, 214-16, 219-23; 
Secularisation of St. 
Martin's, 216-18 ; two sets 
of bishops, 217, 228. 

Transubstantiation, 179, 184. 

Treves, 6. 

U 

Uulfhard, 22, 205. 
Uilhaed (Willehad), 285. 



Vetulus, 1. 

Violence in Northumbria, 
123. 

W 

Waldramn, 27, 44. 
Wearmouth, 127, 135. 
Westbury on Trym, 114. 
Whithorn, 301. 
Wido, 239. 
Wighod, 311. 
Wilgils, 4, 5. 
Willibrord, 2-9. 
Wine, 45w., 205-8, 267, 277. 
Withso (variously spelled), 
27. 



York, Bishops and Saints of, 
ch. iv ; Cathedral Church 
of, 80-4; Library of, 84, 
85 ; School of, 53, 68-70. 



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